World coal use is about to achieve an all-time excessive in 2024, the International Energy Agency mentioned Wednesday, in a yr all however sure to be the most well liked in recorded historical past.
Despite calls to halt humanity’s burning of the filthiest fossil gas driving climate change, the power watchdog expects world demand for coal to hit report highs for the third yr in a row.
Scientists have warned that planet-warming greenhouse gases should be drastically slashed to restrict world heating to keep away from catastrophic impacts on the Earth and humanity.
Earlier in December, the European Union’s local weather monitor Copernicus mentioned 2024 was “effectively certain” to be the hottest on record — eclipsing the mark set simply final yr.
Published on Wednesday, the IEA’s “Coal 2024” report does, nevertheless, predict the world will hit peak coal use in 2027 after topping 8.77 billion tons this yr.
But that may be depending on China, which for the previous quarter-century has consumed 30 percent more coal than the rest of the world’s countries combined, the IEA mentioned.
China’s demand for electrical energy was probably the most important driving pressure behind the rise, with greater than a 3rd of coal burnt worldwide carbonized in that nation’s energy vegetation.
Though Beijing has sought to diversify its electrical energy sources, together with a large enlargement of photo voltaic and wind energy, the IEA mentioned China’s coal demand in 2024 will nonetheless hit 4.9 billion tones — itself one other report.
Increasing coal demand in China, in addition to in rising economies akin to India and Indonesia, made up for a continued decline in superior economies.
However that decline has slowed within the European Union and the United States. Coal use there may be set to say no by 12 and 5 % respectively, in contrast with 23 and 17 % in 2023.
With the upcoming return to the White House of Donald Trump — who has repeatedly known as local weather change a “hoax” — many scientists concern {that a} second Trump presidency would water down the local weather commitments of the world’s largest economic system.
Coal mining additionally hit unprecedented ranges by topping 9 billion tons in output for the primary time, the IEA mentioned, with prime producers China, India and Indonesia all posting new manufacturing data.
The power watchdog warned that the explosion in power-hungry information facilities powering the emergence of synthetic intelligence was likewise more likely to drive up demand for energy technology, with that pattern underpinning electrical energy demand in coal-guzzling China.
The 2024 report reverses the IEA’s prediction final yr that coal use would start declining after peaking in 2023.
At the annual U.N. local weather change discussion board in Dubai final yr, nations vowed to transition away from fossil fuels.
But its follow-up this yr resulted in acrimony, with consultants warning that the failure to double down on that landmark pledge at COP29 in Azerbaijan risked jeopardizing efforts to combat local weather change.
Set up within the wake of the 1973 oil disaster, the IEA presents itself as “the world’s main power authority.”
