In an effort to address worsening air quality, coal-to-gas projects are encouraged to develop in China’s central and western regions, said a senior official with the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) during a press conference held on March 8.

"Central and western China are rich in coal and have a bigger environmental capacity; we encourage adopting coal-to-gas technology there, and use the produced gas to replace coal needed in the eastern part of the nation", said Wu Xiaoqing, vice minister of the MEP.

"We also hope local authorities to take strict environmental protection measures to reduce pollution in the central and western regions”, added Wu.

The Wu's claim came at a time when doubts are running high on whether or not China will continue its support for building massive synthetic natural gas plants. While the plants can convert coal to cleaner-burning natural gas, associated water stress and environmental damages could pose another problem.

Those concerns have already forced Beijing once to put coal-to-gas development on hold. The Chinese government called off the approval of new synthetic natural gas plants in 2010 and only recently renewed its interest.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan region and city clusters in the Yangtze and the Pearl river deltas account for only 8% of China's lands, but they consume 43% of the total coal the country uses, according to Wu.

Emissions from coal combustion are a key source of pollutants. Wu told reporters that “If we want to curb air pollution, we have to curb the use of coal and expand the use of renewable energy and clean energy.”