China has abundant coal resources, and currently is and will continue to be the largest coal producer for the foreseeable future. According to the World Energy Council (2017), China holds an estimated 114.5 Bt of coal reserve as of 2016, the third largest in the world behind the United States and Russia and about 13% of the world’s total reserves. From 1949 to 2016, coal production in China increased rapidly (Figure 1), although it has decreased a bit since 2013. In 2016, coal production in China amounted to 3.21 Bt (Enerdata 2017), about half of the total global coal production. China is also the largest user of coal in the world, consuming about as much coal as the rest of the world combined. Coal consumption accounts to more than 65% of the primary energy consumption in China. Also, the coal-bearing areas in China occur in almost every region of the country (Figure 2) and coal formation occurred in many geologic periods, including Middle Devonian, Carboniferous and Early Permian (C–P1), Late Permian (P2), Late Triassic (T3), Early and Middle Jurassic (J1-2), Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous (J3–K1), and Eogene and Neogene (E–N) (Han and Yang 1980; Han et al. 1996; Dai et al. 2012; Figure 2).
