China has announced plans to spend more than $300 billion to tackle the country's notorious air pollution.

Smog has been a major source of social discontent in China in recent years.

The money will be spent on reducing concentrations in the air of particles caused by burning coal that can cause lung damage.

Across China, levels of those particles, known as PM2.5, regularly exceed limits suggested by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

A state media report said officials aim to reduce PM2.5 emissions in key cities including Beijing by about 25 per cent of 2012 levels by 2017.

The plan would mean PM2.5 concentrations in Beijing will reach about 60 micrograms per cubic meter by 2017 - still several times above the WHO's limit.

The report did not provide details of how the targets would be met. China's environmental ministry was not immediately available to comment.

An especially heavy wave of pollution earlier this year stoked popular discontent, prompting China's government to announce measures to improve air quality, including rating officials' performance on air quality in their regions.

A decades-old Chinese policy of giving out free coal for winter heating in the north of the country has reduced life expectancy there by more than five years, a study released earlier this month by a US scientific journal said.

China is mostly reliant on coal for power and its consumption of fossil fuels grew rapidly in recent decades as the country's economy expanded to become the world's second largest.

China's coal consumption is expected to continue to grow - although Beijing has set a target of raising non-fossil energy use to 15 per cent of its total consumption by 2020, up from 10 per cent in 2010.

AFP