China aims to cap total primary energy consumption at around 4.4 billion tons of coal equivalent in 2017, the director of the National Energy Administration (NEA) said on Wednesday, close to 2016 levels as the country continues a push to use cleaner fuel. The world’s biggest consumer of energy plans to lift the ratio of natural gas in its energy mix to 6.8 percent next year from 5.9 percent in 2015, Nur Bekri, director of the NEA told a conference in Beijing. He said the goal was to reduce coal consumption to around 60 percent of the total next year from 64 percent in 2015. His remarks came as China enters the third year of a “war on pollution”, with previous years of blistering energy demand growth putting China’s environment […]