Mercury pollution has become a global environmental issue．China is the largest anthropogenic emitter of atmospheric mercury． After ratifying the Minamata Convention on Mercury， China faces substantial challenges on mercury emission control． Coal combustion is the largest atmospheric mercury emission sector as well as the key sector for fulfilling Convention obligations． In this study， we developed the atmospheric mercury emission inventories for coal-fired power plants ( CFPPs) ， coal-fired industrial boilers ( CFIBs) and coal-fired residential stoves ( CFＲSs) in 2010 and 2012， evaluated the cobenefit of atmospheric mercury emission reduction associated with actions already conducted to comply with the Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Air Pollution( “Ten Measures”) ， and predicted the atmospheric mercury emission from the coal combustion sector by 2020 and 2030 based on scenario analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of different control measures in the future． The best estimates for atmospheric mercury emission from CFPPs， CFIBs and CFＲSs in 2010 are 100．0 t and 72．5 t and 18．0 t， respectively． The implementation of the“Ten Measures”will reduce atmospheric mercury emission from the coal combustion sector by 92．5 t from 2012 to 2017． Adjustment of energy structure， increase of coal washing application rate and retrofit of dust collectors have the most significant co-benefit on atmospheric mercury emission reduction． Under the best estimate scenario， the mercury emission from the coal combustion sector in 2020 and 2030 will be 128．5 t and 80．0 t， respectively， 33% and 58% lower than that in 2010; and under the most stringent scenario， the mercury emission from the coal combustion sector in 2020 and 2030 will be 103．2 t and 50．9 t， respectively， 46% and 73% lower than that in 2010．

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