China's major coal consuming industries, including power, steel, cement and coal chemical production, could hit peak use of the dirty fossil fuel around 2024, a government researcher said on Wednesday.

Coal use in those four sectors could peak at 2.48 billion tonnes of standard coal equivalent, said Cao Dong, principal expert from Chinese Academy of Environment Planning, a research institute affiliated to China's environment ministry, at a seminar. "Coal use at steel and cement sectors should have reached a peak (in 2020 and 2021), followed by coal chemicals by around 2024," Cao said.

Guest post from Reuters