BEIJING: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Saturday it had approved a $300 million loan to an industrial city in a major Chinese coal-producing province to help “catalyse green” transformation of the city of 3 million people.

The loan for Changzhi in the northern province of Shanxi will help fund a $665 million project, partly financed by the Chinese government, to reduce poverty, cut carbon emissions and improve urban liveability in a city that has long depended on coal, the ADB said.

Changzhi’s low rainfall also exposes it to wildfire and drought, worsened by climate change, with increasing depletion of its water table, according to the Manila-based development lender.

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“Knowledge gained from the project will serve as a model for replication in other heavy-industry regions,” ADB Principal Urban Development Specialist Stefan Rau said in a statement.

As part of the project, Changzhi will build treated wastewater reuse facilities, put electric buses on roads and create bicycle-paths made from construction waste.

The project is expected to be completed by 2030.