As part of our work to decarbonize the power sector in China, NRDC released a report quantifying the potential impact of phasing out the institutional protection that coal plants currently enjoy. We also hosted an experts' roundtable for a deep-dive discussion on China's new policy directive to address coal plant overcapacity in conjunction with the report release held on August 18. Our research findings show that the equivalent financial subsidies could decrease by 90%, from over 300 billion RMB in 2016 to around 30 billion RMB by 2020, which may create a significant amount of stranded assets and economic consequences. NRDC has been calling attention to the growing risk of stranded coal power and advocating for stringency in new coal capacity approval through our Power Sector Roundtable platform since January 2016. China's new policy directive, jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and 15 other government authorities last month, specifically asked for holding back a total of 150GW new coal power generation capacity, among other measures to avoid overcapacity risks, and promote a clean energy mix. The invited experts and roundtable attendees from Chinese and international think tanks, power industry, and energy services companies held a robust discussion on potential policy implementation issues. The experts generally agreed with our recommendations on developing a timely phase-out schedule using a balanced approach to expedite clean energy power market development while strictly controlling new coal power capacity. The report release and expert view was covered by the official news agency Xinhua, Minsheng Weekly of People's Daily, China Environmental News and key industry news outlets.