China 2016 energy consumption up 1.4%

China’s total primary energy consumption is expected to have reached 4.36 billion tonnes of coal equivalent in 2016, up 1.4% compared to last year, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday, citing the country’s top energy official. The figure, given by Nur Bekri, director of the country’s National Energy Administration (NEA), is higher than the 0.9% growth rate forecast by the NEA earlier this year. Reuters reports Bekri told a conference that China’s total non-fossil fuel consumption rose to 13.3% of the total this year, up 1.3 percentage points compared to 2015. China, now in the third year of a “war on pollution,” has been trying to cut and clean up coal use, and will aim to raise the ratio to 14.3% in 2017, Bekri said.