Abstract: The carbon neutrality proposed in China lays out a grand blueprint for national carbon emission reduction and climate governance.However,it will be difficult to implement this vision due to the structure of economic and energy in China.Currently,the coal is still the cornerstone for China’s energy security,which will play an important role for a long time in the future.Thus,the green mining and scientific utilization of coal are the key to realize the goal of carbon peak in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060.In this study,the non-reciprocal relationship between “decarbonization”and “giving up the coal”was expounded.The carbon emission reduction responsibility of the coal industry and its downstream industries was clarified from the perspective of the whole life cycle.The main forecasting parameters was extracted under the 10 scenarios of 6 institutions,and the coal demand from 2020 to 2050 was forecasted.The deviation between the development of the coal industry and the vision of carbon neutrality was re-examined.Then the development roadmap to realize from carbon peak to carbon neutrality was formulated.The results show ① “giving up coal” blindly is not consistence with national conditions.However,the coal industry must face up to the national strategy and the demand target of industry development.Moreover,it is necessary to clarify the boundary of emission reduction between industry responsibility and its own obligations.Specially,the carbon sources formed by downstream utilization should not be attributed to the coal industry,such as coal power and coal chemical industry.② The differences of coal demand in different scenarios,which could be divided into three regions:status quo,moderate emission reduction,and netzero vision.But all forecasts tend to lose market share.The critical period for the survival of the coal industry will be 2030—2050.Therefore,the development space of the coal industry has been greatly reduced.③ Currently,there are still huge deviations between the vision of carbon neutrality and the coal industry,including but not limited to its development,planning and strategic orientation.These deficiencies are reflected in series aspects,such as standard specification,regulatory requirement,governance capacity,technology research,and incentive mechanism.The future development space of coal ultimately depends on whether it could achieve ISRU (In-situ Resource Utilization),net zero carbon emissions and its application,and the promotion of CCUS (Carbon Capture,Utilization and Storage) technology.Therefore,the carbon neutralization program should evaluate the carbon footprint in the whole life cycle of coal,establish the idea of “community with a shared future for energy”,and promote the cooperative treatment of low carbon and anti-pollution.Moreover,the process to achieve carbon neutrality in the coal industry could be divided into three stages:the initial stage (2020—2030),the critical stage (2030—2050),and the consolidation stage (2050—2060).In different stages,effective technical paths should be put into practice,and the dual strategies of “saving energy and reducing emissions” as well as “increasing carbon sink” should be considered.Only in this way can the coal industry develop in a healthy,steady,green and orderly way under the new situation.