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This report by Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) analyzes the state of coal power expansion in China as of February 2026. It highlights a critical divergence where coal capacity reached a decade-high in 2025 despite falling generation and the rapid growth of clean energy and storage. The authors argue that current investment incentives and a large project pipeline risk locking in overcapacity and hindering China's 2030 climate targets, urging a fundamental shift in coal's role from baseload power to a flexible, residual support resource during the 15th Five-Year Plan.

The China Energy Transition Review 2025 by Ember analyzes China's rapid shift toward clean energy and electrification, detailing how its domestic policies and manufacturing scale are driving down global costs and pushing global fossil fuel demand toward a structural decline.

A briefing by Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) reports that China is at risk of missing multiple 2025 climate commitments due to an acceleration in coal power permitting and construction. Despite official pledges to strictly control new coal power, an estimated 114 GW of capacity was approved and 70 GW started construction in 2023. The report argues that this expansion is driven by rigid grid management and a perceived 'policy window' before 2025, leading to significant risks of future overcapacity and stranded assets.

This issue brief analyzes China's clean power sector, detailing its massive growth in electricity capacity, its continued heavy reliance on coal, and the government's strategic shift toward renewable energy and emissions controls under the 12th Five Year Plan.

This research paper examines the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and human well-being, using China as a primary case study. It analyzes how income per capita, energy production mixes, and geography correlate with CO2 emissions across 174 countries and 30 Chinese provinces, arguing that current high-consumption lifestyles in rich countries are incompatible with low-emission stabilization targets.

This briefing by Global Energy Monitor analyzes China's utility-scale wind and solar expansion as of June 2026, focusing on the 'megabases' strategy in northwestern and northern regions. While China leads the world in prospective capacity, the report highlights critical bottlenecks in power transmission and the persistent role of coal in the energy system, which risks curtailing renewable output and entrenching fossil fuel use.