The core dataset for the study ''Tracing China’s methane emissions: 10,000 coal mines for ten years''

Methane is the second most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas. China is the largest methane emitting country in the world, greater than the combination of Europe and America. While coal mining represents half of China’s methane emissions, the amount and the trend of emissions remain controversial since 2010. With China stopping updating emission data after 2014, this compromises the accuracy of the trajectory of global methane emissions. Here, we provide a comprehensive inventory of coal mine methane (CMM) emissions from 2011 to 2020, by independently quantifying the weighted emission factors of more than 10000 mines.

We would like to clarify that all data sources for this study are publicly available. The core dataset used in this study comes from the Compilation of National Coal Mine Gas Level Identification for 2011, which is a publicly available book published by the Chinese National Coal Mine Safety Inspection Bureau. This compilation includes detailed data on gas levels in over 10000 coal mines across China, which serves as the basis for our analysis of methane emission factors. Additionally, the provincial coal production data was sourced from the China Energy Statistical Yearbook, a widely accessible government publication that compiles annual statistics on coal production at the provincial level.

We have uploaded the complete dataset to Figshare, which can be accessed via the DOI link. This ensures that all interested researchers can access the full data used in our study for replication and further analysis. We believe that these measures have improved the transparency and repeatability of our work.