The Environmental Policy and Planning Institute at Renmin University released its latest report, "Establishing a Low-Efficiency Coal Usage Rights Trading in Chinese Cities: Policy Recommendation" on June 29, 2017. The report, which uses Shijiazhuang as a case study, assesses current measures being implemented to decrease coal usage and proposes a new framework for city coal reduction policies thus offering a new policy option for cities to reduce their coal consumption.  

The low-efficiency coal usage rights trading system proposed by this policy is in line with recommendation for energy usage rights systems, and will effectively reduce inefficient coal usage and manage air pollution. This policy also meets the recommendations put forth by the Energy Conservation Regulations of Hebei Province (revised draft, 2016). A key feature of this new proposed policy is that it clearly defines low-efficiency coal use as the target for policy management, and through usage rights trading, this system will be able to achieve significant improvements of city air quality.