According to the 2025 Statistical Review of World Energy, global coal demand reached an all-time high of 165.1 exajoules in 2024, with global coal consumption and production both hitting record highs. While Western countries are retiring coal plants, Asian countries are building them. Over the past decade, for example, the United States retired over 100 gigawatts of coal-fired electricity-generating capacity, while China added almost 300 gigawatts. China accounted for 56% of global coal consumption last year, consuming 92.2 exajoules, which is an increase of 66% from 2005, despite repeated predictions that China had already passed “peak coal.” While environmentalists and renewable lovers tout China’s additions of wind and solar capacity, coal remains the backbone of China’s electricity system, industrial activity, and energy security strategy, as depicted below.
Not only is coal the leading source of electricity generation in China, but it is the leading source of electricity worldwide. In emerging markets and developing economies, coal continues to be the backbone of power systems. In 2024, coal accounted for 34% of the world’s generation. In China, coal produced 57.8% of its generation, and in India, coal produced 74.8%. As the chart below indicates, in the broader Asia-Pacific region, countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh are expanding coal use as they build out their electricity grids and industrial capacity. For these countries, coal is cheap, reliable, and generally domestically produced.
Reports indicate that China burned more coal at power plants between January and July of 2025 than at any time since 2016, despite massive renewable capacity. The country brought online 21 gigawatts of coal capacity in the first six months of 2025 — the highest six-month level in nine years. China has also re-fired 46 gigawatts of existing coal plants and proposed projects with a capacity of 75 gigawatts. In 2025, China will have added between 80 and 100 gigawatts of new or re-fired coal plants.
The growth in global coal consumption is occurring despite a decline in coal use in the OECD. Europe’s coal consumption declined to 7.6 exajoules in 2024, 54% less than in 2005. At one point, Germany had used coal to displace the generation from retiring nuclear units. In the United States, coal consumption was 7.9 exajoules in 2024 — 65% lower than in 2005, as generation from natural gas and intermittent renewables replaced retiring coal plants.
Non-OECD countries accounted for 85% of global coal consumption in 2024, up from 63% in 2005. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for 83% of the world’s total, with China having the largest share at 56%, as mentioned above. India, the second-largest coal consumer in the region, accounted for 14%. India’s coal consumption rose to 22.97 exajoules in 2024, almost 160% higher than in 2005, due to rising electricity demand, a lack of natural gas infrastructure, and favorable government policies.
Coal production hit a new global record of 182 exajoules in 2024, with China producing more than half the world’s coal — 94 exajoules. India continued its rapid expansion, more than doubling its output since 2006 to reach 18 exajoules in 2024, 10% of the world’s total. India has set a goal of 42% higher coal production over the next five years to reduce its dependence on other nations while increasing energy and economic stability. Indonesia nearly quadrupled production over that period, totaling almost 17 exajoules, largely to meet export demand from Asia. Non-OECD countries, where energy demand is still growing rapidly and alternative infrastructure is limited, now supply 84% of global coal output. Despite having the world’s largest coal reserves, the United States produced 10.6 exajoules of coal in 2024, about 6% of total global production.
Trump to Revive Coal Use in the United States
President Trump has signed a comprehensive set of executive orders seeking to bring coal back into the electricity generation mix of the United States. Coal’s share of electricity generation dropped from over half of electricity generation 25 years ago to around 16% today. Despite coal’s ability to provide reliable baseload power, massive federal subsidies and state mandates have resulted in significant solar and wind power capacity additions that are causing grid instability. To protect the grid and to help meet rising electricity demand from artificial intelligence data centers, electric vehicles, and cryptocurrency, President Trump is using emergency powers to keep existing coal plants online. Furthermore, he classified metallurgical coal as a critical mineral, reopened western lands to coal leasing, and ordered the attorney general to investigate states that have implemented laws against fossil fuel use so that the federal government can waive those rules.
Analysis
Western politicians may have written off coal as the fuel of the past, but developing countries have clearly not written back. Record coal consumption and production highlight the importance it has in powering developing countries’ expansion of their industrial and electric capacity, playing an essential role in forwarding economic growth and well-being. While coal consumption and production have fallen dramatically in the U.S. due to environmental regulations, “green” energy subsidies, and cheap natural gas, it still plays an important role in maintaining the stability of the electric grid because it can be stored on site and provide dispatchable generation. Furthermore, even if economic forces prevent coal from achieving its previous dominant position in the U.S. electric grid, it’s still prudent for politicians to allow existing coal plants to continue operating in order to meet the growing demands of artificial intelligence and electrification.
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