Inner Mongolia is to shut down energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining in April. [Photo/VCG]

North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region will shut down existing cryptocurrency mining projects by April 2021 and not approve any new ones.

The policy change was announced in the "Notice on Several Safeguard Measures for Ensuring Completion of Energy Consumption Dual Control Targets in the 14th Five-Year Plan Period (2021-25),” which was jointly issued on March 9 by Inner Mongolia’s development and reform commission, department of industry and information technology and energy bureau.

Inner Mongolia's government is changing its policy to meet the control targets for energy consumption, responding to the central government's call to accelerate high-quality development and promote the construction of ecological civilization.

Inner Mongolia has a chilly and dry climate that's superb for operating mining machinery, and it's wealthy in coal, which provides a comparatively low-cost supply of electrical energy for cryptocurrency miners.

However, cryptocurrency mining operations consume vast amounts of power, and energy created via coal-burning plants is a massive contributor to air pollution.

In addition to banning cryptocurrency mining, Inner Mongolia will reassess other energy-intensive industries such as steel and coal.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Inner Mongolia will no longer approve new modern coal chemical projects. The autonomous region will also control the scale of data center construction in a reasonable and orderly manner.