Location-specific climate and environmental benefits of China’s coal mining phase-down towards carbon neutrality

IF 9.1 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Global Environmental Change Pub Date : 2025-09-13 DOI:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103057

Hao Li , Tao Yang , Linman Li , Bin Lu , Tianzheng Zhang , Xiaolong Lu , Rui Peng , Zhaohua Wang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The coal mining industry, characterized by its high-intensity emissions of both greenhouse gases (GHGs) and pollutants, urgently requires a substantial transformation to tackle these challenges. Existing studies have given insufficient attention to location-specific phase-down of coal mining operations and the associated climate and environmental co-benefits. Here, this study constructs a comprehensive database encompassing 380 large coal mines in China, and then compile inventories of energy consumption, methane emissions and pollutant emissions for each coal mine from 2023 to 2060. Afterwards, this study integrates the technical and economic attributes to assess their retirement rankings. Four phase-down strategies are formulated in accordance with the coal demand trends towards carbon neutrality while the potential climate and environmental co-benefits are thoroughly evaluated. This study indicates that the reduction in both coal demand and emission intensity are crucial factors in alleviating environmental pressures and offer valuable insights into the location-specific phase-down strategies for the coal mining industry.

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中国煤炭开采逐步减少碳中和的区位气候和环境效益

煤炭采矿业的特点是温室气体和污染物的高强度排放，迫切需要进行重大转型以应对这些挑战。现有的研究没有充分注意具体地点逐步减少煤炭开采作业以及有关的气候和环境的共同利益。在此，本研究构建了包含中国380个大型煤矿的综合数据库，并编制了各煤矿2023 - 2060年的能源消耗、甲烷排放和污染物排放清单。然后，本研究将技术属性和经济属性结合起来评估其退休排名。根据煤炭需求走向碳中和的趋势，制定了四项逐步淘汰战略，同时对潜在的气候和环境协同效益进行了全面评估。该研究表明，煤炭需求和排放强度的降低是缓解环境压力的关键因素，并为煤炭开采行业的具体地点逐步减少战略提供了有价值的见解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Global Environmental Change 环境科学-环境科学

CiteScore

18.20

自引率

2.20%

发文量

146

审稿时长

12 months

期刊介绍： Global Environmental Change is a prestigious international journal that publishes articles of high quality, both theoretically and empirically rigorous. The journal aims to contribute to the understanding of global environmental change from the perspectives of human and policy dimensions. Specifically, it considers global environmental change as the result of processes occurring at the local level, but with wide-ranging impacts on various spatial, temporal, and socio-political scales. In terms of content, the journal seeks articles with a strong social science component. This includes research that examines the societal drivers and consequences of environmental change, as well as social and policy processes that aim to address these challenges. While the journal covers a broad range of topics, including biodiversity and ecosystem services, climate, coasts, food systems, land use and land cover, oceans, urban areas, and water resources, it also welcomes contributions that investigate the drivers, consequences, and management of other areas affected by environmental change. Overall, Global Environmental Change encourages research that deepens our understanding of the complex interactions between human activities and the environment, with the goal of informing policy and decision-making.