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The big thing that’s happening is that while North America and Europe are cutting coal use, third world use coal-burning is increasing even faster.
They never took profits from the machine that runs on profits.
Ofc it just got bigger.
Coal is cheap and abundant.
Until there is a “green” energy cheaper than coal, there will be no decline in the usage of coal. If a fuel source cannot be found to replace it, then say goodbye to humanity. That is reality, and no amount “awareness” is going to change that.
There are renewables available cheaper than coal( if you take into account subsidies ), especially in China (the country that dominates those graphics (if you look carefully at the vertical scales). However, there are many political leaders - mainly of older generation - who cannot imagine abandoning coal, they prefer to keep on subsidising, to save traditions and communities, to defend their concept of what made ‘great’ decades ago. In China and India there is also a widespread concept that since the west did this in the past, so now they have to use up an equivalent per-capita share of the atmospheric space - a kind of collective global suicide.
Over half of the growth of electricity consumption was meet by renewables.
99% is over half. And is it just over half of the growth, or does that include part of it before the growth. And what percent was that? And (sorry) source?
There’s a lot of infrastructure cost too. New things to buy or make. It’s CHEAPER to use coal because coal is basically free and the infrastructure to use it exists.
I’m not arguing for coal, yucky, but companies and investors don’t go for less profit.
I am just paraphrasing the article. Looking up their IEA source they use for 2021 shows some newer data. I would have thought FT was better then that. But it is using 2024 73% renewables and another 8% nuclear. Coal made up 7.2%
https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-review-2025/electricity
At least until theres not enough survivors to operate and maintain the infrastructure to extract coal. At one point everyone is going to look around and realize society can’t operate anymore and that will be that.
We will probably be underground at that point… burning “clean coal”
