Carbon measurement is the cornerstone of the stable development of the carbon trading market and the data basis for the country to formulate carbon emission reduction policies. Coal fired power plants are one of the largest sources of carbon emissions in China. It is of great significance for the achievement of China′s dual carbon goal to accurately quantify the carbon emissions of coal-fired power plants. Firstly, carbon accounting standards and policies at home and abroad were introduced. Developed countries have initially formed carbon emission measurement system. Thermal power in the United States mainly uses the measure method to calculate carbon emissions. The United States has written technical standards and specifications into regulations. Coal fired units above 25 MW must use the measure method and submit a mandatory greenhouse gas report. The current carbon measurement in EU adopts both accounting method and measure method. Power plants are divided into different tiers according to carbon emissions, and different tiers have different uncertainty requirements. At the same time, the EU carbon trading market has developed rapidly, which providing a reference for the construction of carbon trading markets in other countries. Compared with developed countries, our country still lacks the complete carbon accounting system. The measure method is in the initial stage of development. At present, China lacks carbon emission database and carbon measurement standards need to be improved. Secondly, The development status of emission factor method, material balance algorithm, measure method, life cycle method and model method for carbon measurement in coal-fired power plants were introduced respectively. The advantages, disadvantages and scope of application were summarized. The calculation process of emission factor method is simple and has the widest application range. However, the calculation error of carbon emissions in China is large, if the default values of emission factors in IPCC guidelines are used. The material balance algorithm uses carbon balance to calculate the carbon emissions of coal-fired power plants. It has many intermediate processes and requires complete data to obtain accurate carbon emissions. The measure method is different from other calculation methods, which can directly measure the flue gas flow and CO2 concentration in the flue gas. It is developing rapidly under the promotion of China′s policies. The life cycle method can add carbon emissions in the upstream and downstream of the power production stage, so it can expand the accounting boundary. The model method can directly predict carbon emissions or element carbon content, which makes up for the lack of key accounting data. The research status of accounting method and measure method was compared. The error source of the accounting method is mainly the selection and measurement of emission factors and net calorific value. The error source of the measure method is mainly the measurement of flue gas flow and CO2 concentration. The latter generally has higher accuracy. Finally, the future research directions such as the development of carbon trading market, the exploration of uncertain sources, and the formulation of carbon emission policies and regulations were prospected, with a view to providing reference for the formulation of carbon emission measurement method system of coal-fired power plants with Chinese characteristics.