The city of Ordos in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region is reportedly experiencing rapid economic development while protecting its environment.

The sustainable and eco-friendly economic expansion is seen as being in line with the city's development goals set forth at the Fifth CPC Ordos Municipal Congress, which concluded on Sept 26, last year.

During the congress, Ordos proposed to develop carbon-neutral industries – featuring recycling, as well as high efficiency, low carbon and clean manufacturing –and evolve into a national new energy industry development demonstration base and a green technology birthplace.

In answering the central government's call, Ordos signed deals on Oct 10 to supply 53.64 million metric tons of coal to 18 autonomous regions, provinces and municipalities in the fourth quarter – with the shipments mainly going to Tianjin municipality, as well as to Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Jilin provinces.

The coal supply ramp-up is reportedly being implemented by 40 coal mines located in Ordos and it is understood that the city is playing an essential role in helping to guarantee the national energy supply.

While increasing its coal supplies, Ordos established 62 green or eco-friendly mines in 2021, bringing the total number of green mines in the city to 171. Of these, 21 were included on a national green coal mine list and 150 were included on a similar list at the autonomous region level.

Due to these efforts, the forest coverage rate of Ordos city last year reportedly reached 27.3 percent, while its vegetation coverage of grasslands was stable at about 50 percent and the proportion of days with good air was 85.8 percent.