As one of the biggest coal-producing and consuming provinces in China, Inner-Mongolia (IM) is facing pressure to close more of its coal mines and restructure the energy supply. Since half of IM's land is assigned as an ecological protection redline area where no new mining, wind power, or photovoltaic solar projects will be permitted, it has to depend on the remaining land, which includes abandoned mines, to develop renewable energy. In 2021, NRDC jointed hands with the Ordos Forestry and Grassland Development Center to initiate a research on the ecological restoration and the development of renewables in the coal mining subsidence areas in IM. The research featured the Buertai coal mine as an example to analyze methods and policy needs for better reuse the coal mining subsidence areas and the abandoned mines for renewable energy, and to ecologically restore the areas for a coordinated biodiversity conservation effect.

The report is only available in Chinese.