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Global coal use, including for power generation, is expected to reach a record high of 8.77 billion tonnes in 2025, the International Energy Agency said in a new report.
China’s continued use of coal in its power plants, coupled with the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on global gas markets, means coal use is likely to remain at near-record levels at least until 2027, the agency said.
The International Coal Report 2024, the agency’s latest on global coal markets, shows that global coal use has rebounded from a slump at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, and demand is expected to remain close to current levels over the next three years even as more renewable energy is added to power grids around the world.
“The rapid spread of clean energy technologies is reshaping the global electricity sector, which accounts for two-thirds of global coal use. As a result, our models show that global coal demand will plateau until 2027 even as electricity consumption rises sharply,” said the IEA’s director of energy markets.
However, “weather factors – particularly in China, the world’s largest coal consumer – will have a major impact on short-term trends in coal demand, and the speed at which electricity demand grows will be critical in the medium term.”
The IEA said coal use for power generation had already peaked in the United States and the European Union, and noted the recent closure of Ratcliffe-on-Soar, the UK’s last coal-fired power plant, and that coal stocks at US power plants remained high, with unburned fuel at those sites worth $6.5 billion.
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