51. Clean Coal Technologies: Transition to a Low Emission Future

After China’s announcement on peaking CO₂ emission before 2023, and to be carbon neutral before 2060, China is on the way moving toward the targets. Many researches present energy transition pathways toward the 30–60 targets; most pathways showed nonfossil fuel could account for more than 75% of primary energy demand by 2050. Fossil use will decrease rapidly but still be in use by 2050. In the transition, fossil fuel especially coal needs to be in the green transition. Coal still accounts for 57% of total primary energy as of 2020, and it is the major source for CO₂ emissions, methane emissions, and air pollutant emissions, together with waste water discharge. The future of coal development could be crucial for the carbon targets and other development targets such as SDGs, air quality targets, etc. This section presents the energy strategies, policy regimes, energy transition pathways, and coal development pathways, together with clean coal technology development, to present the picture for coal development pathways in the energy transition by 2050.