Coal offers an abundant widely spread fossil energy resource. It is available at a quite-stable price from many international suppliers and it will continue to play a significant role in new generating capacity, if security and diversity of supply remain fundamental. In this paper we point out the state of the art in the field of "clean coal technologies" evidencing the perspectives of improvement and the critical elements. Both the emission control of NOx, SOx, and particle matter and the advanced coal conversion pathways like ultra-supercritical (USC), pressurized fluidized bed combustion (PFBC), and integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) are reviewed and analyzed. At the end some elements concerning the perspectives of CO2 emission control strategies are outlined. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.