Performance Evaluation of Low-Carbon and Clean Transformation of China’s Coal Economy

In China, the oversupply of coal occurred in 2009, and from that year onwards, China’s coal economy began a low-carbon and clean transformation. Evaluating transformation performance is the research goal of this paper. The data collection for this paper includes data on deep processing of Chinese coal products from 2009 to 2020, as well as data on asset structure evolution and financial performance of 34 listed companies in the Chinese coal mining. Entropy value method is used to calculate the entropy value of low-carbon transformation, and the regression analysis is used to study the performance of cleaner transformation, the conclusion is as follows: (1) From 2009 to 2020, in China’s total energy consumption, coal consumption accounted for 71.6% in 2009 and 56.8% in 2020, the goals set by the state have been achieved. (2) The national goal of reducing the proportion of coal consumption and reducing carbon emissions has forced the transformation of deep processing of coal products. The transformation of coal enterprises towards low-carbon and clean production has achieved remarkable results. (3) From 2009 to 2020, the non coal industry income of 34 listed companies in China’s coal mining industry increased by 8.21% annually. At the same time, the asset structure was adjusted, and nearly 80% of the asset structure evolution showed an orderly development trend. (4) The regression analysis results show that the entropy value of coal deep processing products and the entropy value of asset structure adjustment are significantly related to transformation performance. The paper proposes to summarize the successful experience of China’s coal energy economic transformation, lay a foundation for achieving the carbon peak and carbon neutral goals in the future, further increase the intensity of coal deep processing, increase the proportion of clean energy in total energy consumption, and strive to control asset operation towards the goal of increasing the proportion of non coal industry income.