A Monthly Coal Mine-Level Methane Emission Dataset for China from 2018 to 2024

Coal mine methane (CMM) is a major source of methane emissions in the energy sector and plays a significant role in global climate change. However, existing CMM emission inventories are typically limited to national or provincial scales and lack long-term, high spatial resolution datasets at the coal mine level. To address this gap, this study develops a comprehensive methane emission dataset covering over 3,000 coal mines across China (excluding Taiwan) from 2018 to 2024. The dataset systematically integrates multi-source coal production data and applies a hybrid estimation framework combining IPCC Tier 2 and Tier 3 methodologies. It includes detailed information on mine name, administrative location (province and prefecture-level city), geographic coordinates, production capacity, mining type, methane emission factors, and monthly emissions. National CMM emissions increased overall from 25.10 Mt in 2018 to 32.87 Mt in 2024, despite a slight decline from the 2023 peak. This dataset provides a robust foundation for analyzing the spatiotemporal patterns of CMM emissions, assessing mitigation potential, and improving greenhouse gas inventories, thereby supporting methane mitigation efforts in China and globally.