China to pick up coal mine methane emission mitigation work

Coal miners work the longwall face at Consol Energy's Enlow Fork mine in Pennsylvania. The U.S. is collaborating with the world's largest coal mine methane emitter, China, on mitigating the potent greenhouse gas. Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence

Experts say coal mine methane emissions will persist even with the declining use of coal, but the world's largest emitter, China, appears to be stepping up its efforts to mitigate them, including collaboration with the U.S.

A United Nations global methane assessment issued May 6 said that within the fossil fuels sector, China is by far the largest source of coal mining-related methane emissions at about 24 million tonnes per year. It also said China's largest methane emissions abatement potential comes from coal production.

Experts said the Chinese government has paid more attention to methane emissions in recent years, and they expect work could pick up as some recent signals show the country is moving toward tackling methane emissions.

Qin Yan, Refinitiv's lead carbon analyst based in Oslo, told S&P Global Market Intelligence that discussions about curbing non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases have already picked up since 2019 in China, and the country's climate efforts are currently focused on establishing an action plan to peak its carbon emissions before 2030 as President Xi Jinping pledged in 2020.

Qin noted that the U.S.-China joint statement on climate published in April put non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases — including methane emissions — as one of the key areas for collaboration between the two countries, while China's 14th five-year plan released in March said it would take "stricter measures" to control methane emissions.

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China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment has also stressed at several forums and statements that non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gas control, especially methane emissions, will be another key task in the country's overall climate policy, Qin added.

It will be worth noting if methane is included in the national carbon trading market in the future, given it has been discussed for the past two years, Qin said.

China is working on launching a national carbon emission trading market this year after developing regional trading platforms since 2011. A total of 2,225 companies, a significant portion of which are power companies, are obligated to take part and are allowed to trade their emission permits.

Lin Boqiang, dean of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University, told Market Intelligence that the main approach of the Chinese coal sector in tackling methane emissions is controlling the overall consumption of coal.

Qin also said China's coal sector will be focusing on curbing overcapacity and shutting down inefficient production in order to peak carbon emissions by 2030.

In April, Xi told the Earth Day climate summit that China will control the increase in coal consumption through 2025 and gradually phase it down from 2026 to 2030, Xinhua News reported.

Continuing emissions

Most coal mine methane emissions come from active underground mines, said Nazar Kholod, a scientist at the Joint Global Change Research Institute, a collaboration between the University of Maryland and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Kholod suggested the rapid decline of coal consumption in the U.S. and elsewhere does not mean the methane emissions issue will automatically go away.

"Once the mine is abandoned, it still emits methane, though at a lower rate," Kholod said.

An International Energy Agency report issued in May said that while coal production revenues are about 10 times larger than those generated by energy transition minerals, many countries' phase-out policies and the rise of renewables are challenging coal's "stronghold on the energy system."

A 2019 report funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in support of the Global Methane Initiative pointed to policies that would clarify the process for obtaining rights to methane from abandoned mines, allowing transfer of those rights to a third-party developer and more to facilitate new capture and utilization projects.

About 60% to 80% of the methane emissions from operational mines are released with ventilation air but in concentrations less than 1%, which makes it difficult to utilize the gas, Kholod told Market Intelligence in an email.

"When the volume and rate of methane from abandoned coal are sufficient to be utilized, mine operators or other companies can develop projects to capture and use this methane for various purposes," Kholod said.

Some of those potential uses include electricity production, combined heat and power for industry and urban areas, supply to commercial natural gas markets and monetized benefits of greenhouse gas emissions.