Coal
Coal power is the single biggest contributor to climate change. Yet it remains the world’s main source of electricity, generating 35% of global electricity in 2023.
Share of coal in global electricity (%)
Overview
Coal power not declining fast enough for 1.5C
Ember’s Global Electricity Review revealed that coal generation reached an all-time high in 2023, rising by 1.4% to 10,434 TWh.
Coal is collapsing in most OECD countries, with more and more countries going entirely coal-free. The biggest falls in 2023 were in the EU and US. Coal is still on the rise in some emerging economies, though the coal increases in 2023 were concentrated in just four countries that had drought-related hydro issues.
The top four coal power countries – China, India, the United States and Japan – were responsible for over three-quarters of the world’s coal-fired electricity in 2023 (79%, 8,199 TWh).
According to the IEA Net Zero Emissions scenario, the world needs to bring the share of coal in the power mix down to 14% by 2030. OECD countries must stop burning coal for power by 2030 and the rest of the world by 2040. The latest IPCC models also back up that timeline.
Last updated: May 2024
The world's biggest coal generators
Ember position
Coal power is incompatible with a safe climate
Coal power is the single biggest threat to a safe climate. But the good news is that we have cleaner and cheaper alternatives like wind and solar that can rapidly replace it this decade. Coal is already the most expensive form of electricity generation and so we do not advocate for the use of coal with CCS or other abatement measures – to tackle climate change, the world has to get rid of coal for good.
Our analysis shows how countries like China and India can accelerate their transition away from coal, targeting the closure of the least efficient ‘sub-critical’ plants first. We are helping to share lessons from the rapidly accelerating coal phase-out in Europe, as well as shining a spotlight on laggards like Germany and Poland.
The IEA Net Zero Roadmap shows that for a safe climate, coal power must end in advanced economies by 2030 and worldwide by 2040. We won’t stop until that’s achieved.
Urgent decline required this decade
IPCC scenarios show that global unabated coal power needs to fall by 87% in the next 9 years, from 10,059 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2021 to 1,153 TWh in 2030.
