Abstract: As a pillar industry of China’s energy supply, the coal-fired power sector faces dual pressures of pollution reduction and carbon mitigation, making the assessment of synergistic effects key to achieving a green transition. However, significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity exists in pollutant and carbon emissions from the coal-fired power industry, and complex synergistic effects are present between pollution reduction and carbon mitigation measures. Although single-target assessment methods have achieved remarkable success in the coal-fired power sector, their inherent limitations are becoming increasingly apparent due to the fragmented nature of assessment objectives. Treating pollution reduction and carbon mitigation as independent goals overlooks the complex interrelationships between them, highlighting the urgent need to develop integrated multi-objective synergistic assessment methods. This review systematically outlines a methodological framework for assessing the synergistic effects of pollution reduction evaluate synergistic effects from a macro perspective but lack detailed technological insights, making them suitable for macro-level policy formulation and long-term strategic planning. Bottom-up methods offer precise depictions of technological details and are applicable to technological pathway optimization and emission reduction potential assessment but have limitations in reflecting policy interactions. Hybrid methods combine the strengths of both approaches, integrating macro policy simulation with micro-level technological analysis, though they involve higher model complexity. The selection of synergistic assessment methods for the coal-fired power industry should be more targeted, depending on the research subject and application scenario. Finally, future development directions are proposed, including strengthening the assessment of key technological pathways, enhancing multi-objective dynamic optimization, improving data monitoring and measurement systems, deepening region-specific differentiated assessments, and promoting interdisciplinary research. These efforts aim to provide a theoretical foundation for constructing research methods and systems for synergistic pollution reduction and carbon mitigation assessment in the coal-fired power industry.