For years critics have blamed China - the world's largest producer of greenhouse gasses - for not doing enough to prevent global warming.

But recently Beijing has ramped up efforts to improve its environmental record, closing coal-fired power plants and shutting mines that had kept tens of thousands employed.

An estimated 50,000 mines have bee closed in recent years and the government plans to close many more.

Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan travelled to coal-rich Shanxi province in central China and reports on the difficulties the closures are causing.