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.