China’s energy structure is dominated by fossil fuels, especially coal consumption, which accounts for a relatively high share. In January 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak affected the global coal market, and many countries experienced negative economic growth. Economic development requires energy consumption. In 2021, China set a target of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 in order to phase out the dependence of carbon emissions on economic development. Therefore, the aim of this article is to develop directions for the sustainable development of China’s coal industry. Based on the macroenvironment and situation analysis, the article concludes that, under the influence of geopolitics, China’s shortage of imported coal resources and China’s continuous rise in coal demand, the share of coal in China’s energy structure will not decrease significantly in the long-term. The main directions for the sustainable development of China’s coal industry are to ensure the safety of coal energy storage and improve the level of safety supervision; coordinate the development of regional energy; increase the clean, efficient, and low-carbon utilization of coal; and strengthen international coal strategic cooperation.

In 2020, China and India accounted for two-thirds of global coal consumption, while the European Union and the United States accounted for only 10%. Coal consumption in Southeast Asia has now surpassed the European Union and will soon surpass the United States. Now the global coal trend is mainly influenced by Asia. Changes in the demand for coal in China are closely related to economic growth, but in different periods of the development of China's industrialization, the degree of dependence of economic growth on coal consumption differs. The experience of developed countries shows that in the early stages of industrialization and development, the industrial scale of the heavy industry sector increased rapidly, and the demand for products with high energy consumption increased significantly, leading to a rapid increase in demand for coal; During the post-industrial stage, the economy is developing towards an industrial structure with low energy consumption and high productivity, and the positive relationship between economic growth and coal has weakened. The article provides an analysis of the macroeconomic drivers of the modern turbulent external environment, which determines the directions of the strategies of the Chinese coal market. Based on the methods of strategic analysis and analysis of competition according to the method of M. Porter, it is revealed that significant reserves of coal mines cannot be used as a driving force for the sustainable development of the company. Depletion is characteristic of raw material reserves. Therefore, to ensure sustainable development, it is necessary to focus on efficient mining and production of "clean" coal. In particular, to use the advantages of modern advanced technologies to increase the coefficient of extraction of coal resources and protect the ecological environment; use industrial integration as a liaison to promote deeper cooperation in coal energy and coal chemistry.

China's "14th Five-Year Plan" in 2021 mentioned the need to optimize the coal production and development layout and production capacity structure, systematically improve the coal supply guarantee capability, and promote the clean and efficient utilization of coal. Analyzing the internal and external needs and requirements of the current development of China's coal industry can effectively improve the existing problems of enterprises' ESG transformation, utilize coal resources efficiently, and ensure the high-quality development of coal and the sustainable development of enterprises. At present, most coal companies in China are still highly polluting and consuming, which not only does not meet the national requirements of low-carbon environment protection, energy saving and emission reduction, but also the high production cost has led to the declining economic efficiency of enterprises. The lack of attention to ESG assessment and information disclosure by most enterprises has aggravated the incomplete and untimely understanding of external stakeholders on the comprehensive development status of enterprises, which to a certain extent has led to the financing constraints of enterprises. The article summarizes the development of ESG concept in China and its framework contents, analyzes the external constraints and internal problems of the transformation of Chinese coal enterprises under the ESG concept, and gives corresponding suggestions for the sustainable development of coal enterprises under the ESG concept : the government needs to pay attention to the encouragement and supervision of ESG development of enterprises; coal industry associations need to provide guidance and assistance to enterprises in terms of ESG governance; in terms of internal management of coal enterprises, enterprises need to raise management awareness of ESG governance, focus on the training and introduction of professional talents, promote the digital development of enterprises and mention high-tech research and development.