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On August 25, the international environmental organization Greenpeace released a briefing titled \"Study on the Latest Developments in Coal Power Projects in China in the First Half of 2021\" (hereinafter referred to as the \"Briefing\"). Based on publicly available data from the project approval authorities at the provincial level in China, a total of 5.2 gigawatts of capacity for coal-fired power generation units was approved by these authorities during the first half of this year; most of these projects were cogeneration projects, and the overall amount was 78.8% lower than in the same period last year. These include three coal-fired power projects that do not involve cogeneration, with a total installed capacity of 3.3 gigawatts, accounting for 64.0% of the total approved capacity. All of these projects are located in the coal-rich provinces of Shaanxi and Anhui, and they are all included in the list of major projects for 2021. Li Danqing, project manager for Greenpeace’s research on domestic low-carbon development policies, said: “Judging from the approval status of coal power projects in the first half of 2021, China is imposing increasingly strict controls on such projects domestically.” However, some provincial areas with advantages in coal resources still show a strong tendency to launch coal-fired power projects; the central authorities **need to be vigilant regarding the scale of projects scheduled to come online during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. ” The briefing found that in non-CHP coal power projects, aside from the \"Datang Shaanxi Xiwangzhai Coal-Power Integrated Power Plant Project\" which serves the **strategy of transporting electricity from the west to the east**, the coal power projects approved in the first half of the year were primarily aimed at leveraging the regional resource advantages to develop the local economy. From a temporal perspective, the newly approved coal-fired power projects in the first half of 2021 were mainly concentrated in February and March, accounting for 38.7% and 28.1% of the total approved capacity respectively. After China explicitly called for \"strict control over coal-fired power projects\" on April 22 this year, no new large-scale coal-fired power projects that are not for combined heat and power generation have been approved since then. By reviewing the lists of major projects published by various provincial governments in 2021, the research team behind the briefing found that 23 provinces included coal-fired power projects in their lists of major projects for that year; the total installed capacity of such projects was 104.8 gigawatts. In terms of installed capacity, Shaanxi, Guangdong, Gansu, and Guizhou ranked highest. Among them, Shaanxi, Guangdong, and Gansu mainly have projects that have already started or been approved, while most of the projects in Guizhou are still in the preliminary preparation stage. Compared to last year, Shandong and Zhejiang no longer include coal-fired power projects on this year’s list, setting an example as leaders in the energy transition. On August 18, a recent study titled “Sunsetting coal power in China”, published in iScience, a journal affiliated with Cell Press (hereinafter referred to as the “study”), showed that by 2040, coal-fired power generation in China’s electricity system could potentially be completely replaced by wind power, solar power, and energy storage. This is the first study to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complete phase-out of coal power and its impacts. Studies have shown that in order to replace coal-based power generation, between 2020 and 2025, the annual addition of wind and solar capacity should be 100–150 gigawatts, with an additional 15 gigawatts of storage capacity added each year. Between 2025 and 2040, this figure should increase further, to 250 GW for wind and solar capacity, along with 90 GW of additional storage capacity per year. Previous scientific studies and policy discussions suggest that by 2050, coal-powered electricity will still account for a certain proportion of the power system; to achieve a low-carbon power system, nuclear power and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are needed. This study shows that, assuming a relatively moderate growth in electricity demand in the future, China’s power system can achieve a complete phase-out of coal use, with the replacement of coal-powered generation being accomplished primarily through renewable energy and energy storage. If electricity demand increases significantly in the future, 310 gigawatts of coal-fired power will be retained as backup capacity. As the Chinese economy enters a new normal, especially under the dual constraints of the \"dual carbon\" goals and strict controls on coal-fired power projects, a rational allocation of investment in the power sector is key to achieving high-quality development in China’s power industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. The sharp decline in the approval of coal-fired power projects indicates that China is actively promoting emissions reductions in its power system. According to research, if China is to achieve a complete phase-out of coal-fired power by 2040, it will require not only rapid development of renewable energy but also a low energy demand. However, regardless of how electricity demand evolves, it is necessary to meet the new growth in electricity demand through non-coal power generation, while rapidly expanding the scale of solar, wind, and energy storage.