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

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.