China’s 15th Five-Year Coal Industry Plan: New Targets and Measures for Coal-Sector Methane
31 August 2026 - On 10 August, China’s National Development and Reform Commission and National Energy Administration released the 15th Five-Year Plan for Coal Industry Development (the “Coal Plan”), which includes the Coalbed Methane (Coal-Mine Gas) Development and Utilization Plan as an Annex (the “Coalbed Methane Plan”). Together, the two Plans reinforce a broader trend across China’s 15th Five-Year planning documents: methane mitigation is increasingly integrated into energy, climate, environmental, and sectoral policy frameworks.
The Coal Plan reaffirms the goal of peaking coal consumption by 2030 set out in the 15th Five-Year Carbon Peaking Action Plan, while the Coalbed Methane Plan introduces new methane-related targets, including 26 billion cubic meters of coalbed methane (CBM) production and 6.5 billion cubic meters of coal-mine gas utilization by 2030. These are production and utilization targets, not absolute emissions-reduction targets.
For comparison, CBM production reached 15.5 billion cubic meters in 2025, indicating that substantial growth would be required to reach the 2030 target. By contrast, coal-mine gas utilization reached 6.16 billion cubic meters in 2025, leaving relatively little additional growth needed to meet the 2030 target.
The Coalbed Methane Plan also includes measures to strengthen methane recovery and utilization, promote the treatment and utilization of low-concentration methane, and improve methane emissions monitoring and control.
Expanding Coalbed Methane Development
The Coalbed Methane Plan mandates maintaining and increasing CBM production in China’s Qinshui Basin (in southeastern Shanxi Province in North China), accelerating development in the eastern Ordos Basin (in North-Central China) and in Xinjiang (in the far northwest of China), and expanding exploration in other resource areas. It also promotes improved drilling and production technologies and greater integration with China’s natural-gas pipeline network.
Expanding Methane Recovery and Utilization Across Methane Concentrations
The Coalbed Methane Plan promotes greater pre-drainage of methane and coordinated extraction both at the surface and underground. It also supports surface extraction of gas from closed mines where conditions permit, thereby extending the policy focus beyond active mines.
A notable feature is the Plan’s emphasis on utilization across methane concentration levels, as outlined below:
- methane concentration above 30%: purification and utilization;
- methane concentration at 8–30%: expanded power generation;
- methane concentration below 8%: regenerative thermal oxidation, catalytic oxidation, and other utilization approaches; and
- ventilation-air methane (methane concentration below 0.75%): exploration of approaches such as mixed regenerative thermal oxidation.
The provisions on utilizing methane below 8% are especially important because these lower-concentration streams are generally more difficult to use as conventional fuel, yet they can still represent a significant source of methane emissions.
Stronger Methane Monitoring and Emissions Control
The Coalbed Methane Plan promotes a coordinated methane-control mechanism across the coal industry and standardized monitoring equipment at operating underground mines. It also requires improved methane-emission statistics and encourages coal-mining companies to establish platforms for emissions data and analysis.
The Plan also requires strict implementation of China’s Coalbed Methane (Coal Mine Gas) Emission Standard, including controls on venting when the methane concentration is at least 8% and the pure methane extraction rate is at least 10 cubic meters per minute. It also calls for methane utilization and emissions-control performance to be included in corporate social-responsibility reporting.
These provisions move China’s coal-sector methane framework beyond promoting methane utilization toward more direct emissions management. Their effectiveness will depend on measurement quality, enforcement of emissions restrictions, and treatment of methane sources below existing concentration and extraction-rate thresholds.
Conclusion
The Coal Plan, including its Annex containing the Coalbed Methane Plan, strengthens China’s coal-sector methane control framework by expanding CBM development, increasing methane recovery, treating low-concentration methane, utilizing closed-mine methane, implementing mine-level monitoring, and applying methane emissions control. Ultimately, the Plan’s emission-control impact is likely to depend more on implementation than on the headline utilization target.
Additional IGSD China Resources:
- IGSD (18 March 2026) China’s 15th Five-Year Framework Plan: Overview of Key Targets and Priorities for Mitigating Super Climate Pollutants.
- IGSD (5 August 2026) Methane Mitigation Opportunities in China’s Energy-Sector Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction Action Plan.
- IGSD (4 August 2026) China’s 15th Five-Year Climate Response Plan: Strengthening Non-CO₂ Measures Without Adding New Targets.
- IGSD (13 July 2026) China’s 15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Beautiful China: Implications for Non-CO₂ Super Climate Pollutant Mitigation.
- IGSD (12 July 2026) The Methane Mitigation Opportunities in China’s 15th Five-Year Plan for Building a New Energy System.
