Research on the Construction of an ESG Evaluation System for Coal Enterprises from the Perspective of “New Three Modernizations”

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China’s coal industry urgently requires an ESG evaluation system that reflects its high carbon emissions, operational risks and technology-driven transformation. Existing frameworks are derived mainly from general international standards and do not fully capture these industry-specific features. Using grounded theory, this study conducted three-level coding of 45 core literature sources and 15 policy documents and extracted 12 categories. From the perspective of the “New Three Modernizations”—green transformation, intelligent transformation and integrated development—this study constructs an ESG evaluation indicator system for coal enterprises comprising three primary indicators, 12 secondary indicators and 34 tertiary indicators. The entropy weight method and the extension cloud model were then used to evaluate Group ZN from 2020 to 2024. The results show that Group ZN’s ESG performance improved from Medium (C) in 2020–2021 to Good (B) in 2022–2024. The environmental dimension remained the main constraint, whereas the social and governance dimensions improved more clearly. The proposed system integrates industry characteristics with national policy priorities and provides a practical tool for ESG diagnosis and governance improvement in coal enterprises.