Global coal consumption reached a record high this year despite steep falls in demand in Europe and the United States, a recent study has found.
According to a report published on Friday by the International Energy Agency (IEA), global coal consumption rose 1.4% to 8.54 billion tonnes (Bt) this year, with the increase driven primarily by strong demand in China and India, the world's most and second-most populous countries respectively. Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines also all registered sharp rises in coal consumption.
The global increase comes in spite of major declines in coal demand in the United States and Europe, where consumption fell by 21% and 23% respectively. It also follows a steep rise in demand from 2021 to 2022, when global coal consumption grew by 4%.
Last year's increase was, in turn, largely driven by a steep growth in demand in Europe, where leaders scrambled to find alternatives to Russian fossil fuels – especially pipeline gas – following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Goodbye for good?
More promisingly, the report forecast that global coal consumption will decrease from next year, with total demand likely to fall by 2.3% in 2026 relative to 2023 levels.
IEA Director of Energy Markets and Security Keisuke Sadamori expressed considerable optimism about the projections for 2024 and beyond.
"We have seen declines in global coal demand a few times, but they were brief and caused by extraordinary events such as the collapse of the Soviet Union or the Covid-19 crisis," Sadamori said. "This time appears different, as the decline is more structural, driven by the formidable and sustained expansion of clean energy technologies."
He added: "A turning point for coal is clearly on the horizon – though the pace at which renewables expand in key Asian economies will dictate what happens next, and much greater efforts are needed to meet international climate targets."
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Experts say that cutting down on coal consumption will prove crucial to keeping carbon emissions below the levels required to limit global temperature increases to 2°C relative to pre-industrial levels, as mandated by the 2015 UN Paris Agreement.
"Coal is a fossil fuel, and is the dirtiest of them all, responsible for over 0.3°C of the 1°C increase in global average temperatures," reports ClientEarth, an environmental NGO. "This makes it the single largest source of global temperature [increases]."
Belgium does not contribute to global coal consumption, as its last coal plant was closed in March 2016. It was the first EU Member State to completely phase out its use of the fossil fuel.
