Achieving coal usage by low-carbon ways through clean technologies could be one of the possible ways to meet the rapid growth of China's energy demand, and also mitigate the environmental deterioration. This paper first presented the important role of coal in China's energy system and the environmental issues caused by coal consumption, and then analyzed the development status of clean coal technologies (CCTs) in China. Then, a structural VAR model is adopted to assess the impacts of coal price, R&D activities and GDP/emissions shocks on CCTs. The results indicate that the unexpected coal price shock and R&D shock could increase the ratio of clean coal patents to energy patents in short term, while a GDP/emissions shock has an opposite effect. However, these effects are not long lasting. Finally, suggestions about coal price and government funds for R&D activities are given so as to promote development of CCTs in China.
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