BEIJING - China will upgrade its coal-fired power plants to more than halve the amount of air pollutants they discharge by 2020, the head of the National Energy Administration promised on Friday.

Nur Bekri said the improvements will mean the plants are saving around 50 million tons of raw coal annually within the next five years.

China consumes about four billion tons of coal each year and about half is used to generate electricity.

Coal-fired power plants are intensive in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in North China, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta in South China, becoming a key cause of air pollution in these areas.

China is aiming to cut total coal consumption to below 65 percent of its total primary energy use by 2017.