Global coal demand is set to remain broadly flat through 2025.

Global coal demand is expected to remain largely unchanged in both 2024 and 2025 as surging electricity demand in some major economies offsets the impacts of a gradual recovery in hydropower and the rapid expansion of solar and wind.

The world’s use of coal rose by 2.6% in 2023 to reach an all-time high, driven by strong growth in China and India, the two largest coal consumers globally. While coal demand grew in both the electricity and industrial sectors, the main driver was the use of coal to fill the gap created by low hydropower output and rapidly rising electricity demand.

In China, which accounts for more than half of global coal consumption, electricity generation from renewables is significantly slowing down the growth in coal use in 2024. But strong growth in China’s electricity demand makes a decline in the country’s coal consumption unlikely this year. Meanwhile, in India, coal demand growth is set to decelerate in the second half of 2024 as weather conditions return to seasonal averages.

/IEA/