Applying emergy and decoupling analysis to assess the sustainability of China’s coal mining area

Abstract

Abstract The sustainable development of coal mining area continues to be one of the most topical issues in the world. Taking Shainxi Province as a case, this study applies emergy and decoupling analysis to build a multi-index sustainability evaluation system and constructs an emergy decoupling index to investigate the sustainability of a coal mining area in China during 2006–2015. It overcomes the problem of the unification of the traditional evaluation index system and integrates the influence of economic development, resources, the environment, and energy. The study finds that the coal mining area still depends on its coal resources. The sustainability of the coal mining area is still at a low level, and it is not sustainable in the long term. The economic growth still has a strong negative decoupling from the environmental loss. Energy management system and circular economic system should be built to improve the coal mining area’s sustainability. In the long run, the coal mining industry should gradually be abandoned. Based on China’s growing energy consumption, the findings of this study may not only serve as a reference for management to improve the sustainability of the coal mining areas but also to address China’s energy shortage problem.