US$1.46b coal fund set up in Shanxi

The People’s Bank of China will establish a US$1.46 billion (RMB10 billion) coal and energy industry fund in northern China’s Shanxi province to support cleaner energy, Xinhua reported, “Private capital in the province is fairly active but the money largely goes to inefficient and polluting traditional ways of extraction, while funding for hi-tech mining and development of renewable energy is always in shortage,” the central bank’s vice governor Ma Delun told a forum on coal industry growth and capitalization. “The RMB10 billion fund aims to fix that problem and support local coal-bed methane projects.” According to the China Securities Journal, Shanxi’s coal-bed methane reserves accounts for one-third of the nation’s total.