China Coal Policy Database (2013-2025)

This is an original database of 239 coal-related policies issued by the Chinese central government between 2013 and 2025, including the English and Chinese names and original source links. We identified these policies by searching for the keywords “energy transformation” (nengyuan zhuanxing) and/or “coal” (mei) within the full text of energy policy and regulation documents available on the websites of relevant Chinese government agencies. Given the distinct set of stakeholders and policy dynamics across these issue areas, we limit the scope of our analysis to the policies directly affecting coal supply and consumption, mainly coal-mining-related policies, while largely excluding coal-chemical or the coal-fired power sector policies unless they explicitly target coal supply or consumption. We began our search in 2013, when the government began elevating environmental concerns related to coal policymaking and declared a national “war on air pollution." We end the dataset as of December 2025 to capture the most recent coal policies available at the time of analysis. We focus on policies issued by the four primary national government agencies that influence coal policymaking through strategic planning, standard setting, and environmental impact assessments, NDRC, NEA, MEE (formerly MEP), and the State Council. While our analysis focuses primarily on coal-mining-related policies, we selectively included coal-fired power and coal-chemical policies whose content explicitly responds to national coal consumption and/or production targets. For more details see Gong and Lewis (2026), "The Politics and Policies Governing China’s Coal Transition: Implications for Climate Mitigation," Environmental Research: Energy.

本数据集为2013至2025年间中国中央政府发布的239项煤炭相关政策原始数据库，包含政策中英文名称及原始来源链接。我们通过在相关中国政府机构网站公开的能源政策与监管文件全文中，检索关键词‘能源转型’（energy transformation）与/或‘煤炭’（coal）完成政策筛选。鉴于不同议题领域的利益相关方与政策动态存在显著差异，本研究将分析范围限定为直接影响煤炭供应与消费的政策，主要为煤矿开采相关政策，在很大程度上排除煤炭化工或燃煤发电领域政策，除非其明确针对煤炭供应或消费。检索始于2013年，彼时中国政府开始重视煤炭政策相关的环境问题，并宣布开展全国性"大气污染防治攻坚战"。数据集截止至2025年12月，以收录分析时可获取的最新煤炭政策。本研究聚焦于四大核心国家级政府机构发布的政策，这些机构通过战略规划、标准制定与环境影响评估影响煤炭政策制定，分别为国家发展和改革委员会（NDRC）、国家能源局（NEA）、生态环境部（MEE，原环境保护部（MEP））及国务院。尽管本分析主要围绕煤矿开采相关政策展开，但我们也选择性纳入了明确响应国家煤炭消费和/或生产目标的燃煤发电与煤炭化工政策。更多细节可参见Gong和Lewis（2026）发表于《Environmental Research: Energy》的论文《The Politics and Policies Governing China’s Coal Transition: Implications for Climate Mitigation》。