The decline of China's coal usage may have become a long-term trend, according to experts, after official data on Tuesday showed that coal burning in 2016 dropped for the third consecutive year.

Coal consumption, a major source for carbon dioxide emissions, dropped by 4.7 percent in 2016, the biggest year-on-year decline since 2014, according to the annual Statistical Communique on Economic and Social Development, released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Xie Zhenhua, China's special representative for climate change, told China Daily in January that he believed China would fulfill its carbon emission pledges "on time", but it might be too early to say the nation has accomplished its goal.

China is aiming to reach a peak in its carbon dioxide emissions around 2030, according to pledges it made in the landmark UN Paris climate agreement, which came into force last year.

Although the government has yet to make any announcement, experts and economists expect the trend will continue, leading to carbon emissions peaking sooner.

The former administrator of the Chinese National Energy Administration, Zhang Guobao, wrote in July that coal consumption has peaked, adding that it should be announced publicly.

Fossil fuel demand would naturally shrink after the nation's economy begins to rely more on the service sector, whose energy consumption and pollution levels are lower, according to Hu Angang, an economics professor at Tsinghua University.

wangyanfei@chinadaily.com.cn