Located in the Yellow River Basin and the Fenhe-Weihe Plains, Linfen City of Shanxi Province is also part of the greater Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, where the fight against air pollution has lasted decades. One of China’s biggest coking coal hubs, the city of four million population wants to seize the great opportunities of the new era, including eco-friendly and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, China’s comprehensive pilot of the energy revolution, the national pollution reduction and carbon mitigation pilot, and zero emission zone programs. These schemes are great drivers for Linfen to realize carbon goals, attain all air quality standards, and achieve economy-wide green transition with the same sets of policy tools. Against this backdrop, two teams—one led by Zou Ji, CEO and President of Energy Foundation China (EF China) and composed of directors of the foundation’s all programs, and the other, team of researchers at Tsinghua University, led by Hao Jiming, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Professor at the Tsinghua School of Environment—paid a field trip to Linfen, where they examined the building materials industry, coal-fired boilers, and scattered coal treatment of the city, before they discussed on May 16, 2023 with major departments of its municipal government on how to synergize pollution reduction with carbon reduction and realize high-quality socio-economic development.
Visiting Linfen Weidun Cement Group’s Grinding Units:

 

Checking Linfen Hongyipeng Building Materials Co., Ltd.’s Coal Gangue Sintered Bricks:

 

Talking to Residents at Jiade Township, Yaodu District, Linfen on Scattered Coal Treatment:

 

Visiting Shanxi Yue’anda New Energy Co., Ltd.:

 

Visiting Huozhou Power Plant After Discussing With Linfen Investment Group on Long-Distance Transmission:

Linfen City and EF China signed a MOU on Strategic Cooperation.

When EF China program directors and the Tsinghua research team talked with heads from various departments of Linfen, such as environment, development and reform, industry and information technology, housing and urban-rural development, transportation, finance, and Linfen Investment Group, their discussions covered topics including regional emission reduction under the city’s attainment plan for air quality standards, coordinated technical retrofits of Huozhou Power Plant, long-distance waste heat supply, pollution and carbon reduction of major industries, zero-emission freight, transportation system optimization, industrial transition, economic diversification, investment and financing, as well as communications.

Zou Ji emphasized the significance of this field trip to Linfen. He said that the city’s energy issues could not be solved overnight, but required concerted and persistent efforts of all sectors of the society, to which EF China was ready to provide support. He expected the two parties to deepen cooperation and push the pollution and carbon reduction projects toward tangible results, he said.