Despite all the pledges from the West to curb global carbon emissions, the world is burning coal like never before.
The Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) has published its annual report on the coal market. It shows global coal consumption climbed to an all-time high in 2022 – and will stay near that record level “for the foreseeable future”.
“Coal is the largest single source of carbon emissions from the energy sector, and in Europe and the United States, the growth of clean energy has put coal use into structural decline,” said IEA director for energy markets Keisuke Sadamori.
“But demand remains stubbornly high in Asia, even as many of those economies have significantly ramped up renewable energy sources.
“We need greater policy efforts and investments – backed by stronger international cooperation – to drive a massive surge in clean energy and energy efficiency to reduce coal demand in economies where energy needs are growing fast,” Sadamori concluded.
The rise in consumption is mainly the product of strong Asian growth even as Western countries try to phase out the use of coal, says the IEA, although the report notes that coal production rose in the European Union for the second year in a row in 2022. A total of 349 Mt was excavated, up 5 per cent from the previous year, due to an increase in lignite production to feed power plants mostly in Germany, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
Globally, coal consumption in 2022 rose by 3.3 per cent to 8.3 billion tonnes. In 2023 and 2024, small declines in coal-fired power generation are likely to be offset by rises in the industrial use of coal, the IEA forecasts, although it adds that there are wide variations between geographic regions.
Global coal consumption set to hit another record-high this year, @IEA says 🪨⚠️
📈 Demand to inch higher by 0.4% to 8,388 Mt in 2023
🇨🇳 Higher consumption in China and India will offset declines in Europe and the US
👀 Demand forecast to remain flat (-0.1%) in 2024 pic.twitter.com/CvndLtvYqo— Stephen Stapczynski (@SStapczynski) July 27, 2023
China, India and South East Asian countries together are expected to account for three quarters of coal consumed worldwide in 2023.
European coal use is expected to fall sharply this year as renewables expand, according to the IEA, and as nuclear and hydropower output partially recovers from recent slumps. In the US, the move away from coal is also being spurred by falling natural gas prices.
Global coal demand is estimated to have grown by about 1.5 per cent in the first half of 2023 to a total of about 4.7 billion tonnes, lifted by an increase of 1 per cent in power generation and 2 per cent in non-power industrial uses, the report says.
By region, coal demand fell faster than previously expected in the first half of this year in the US and the EU – by 24 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively.
Demand in the two largest consumers, China and India, grew by more than 5 per cent during the first half of 2023, more than offsetting declines elsewhere.
The record use of coal comes together with historically high consumption of oil. In 2022, record profits were generated by the oil industry for companies including Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon and Shell. Russia’s war with Ukraine coincided with the post-Covid pandemic economic recovery to drive oil prices to their highest levels ever. Together, the four companies reported $1 trillion in sales last year.
Despite the decline in the US, global coal consumption, especially in Asia and China, which consumes 55% of the world's coal, continues to rise due to the relative cheapness and abundance of coal, and rapid industrialization.https://t.co/09H6CbbMfS
— OilPrice.com (@OilandEnergy) July 27, 2023
