Last week, during the COP28 meeting in Dubai, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said, “There shouldn't be any more coal-fired power plants permitted anywhere in the world.” China, India, and a bunch of other countries didn’t get that memo.
In July, the International Energy Agency predicted global coal use will set another new record of about 8.4 billion tons this year. The agency also predicted coal consumption will remain at or above that level in 2024. “China will continue to account for more than half of the world’s coal use, with the power sector alone consuming one-third,” said the IEA. “If we add India, the global share rises to about 70%, meaning that China and India together consume double the amount of coal as the rest of the world combined.”
