China is a “key actor”: a third of the coal consumed in the world is burned in Chinese power plants. But demand for coal continues to rise in certain emerging economies, such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Global demand for coal reached a record level this year but is expected to stabilize by 2027 given the rise of renewables to meet growing demand for electricity, the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced on Wednesday.
“After reaching a record level in 2024”, with 8.77 billion tonnes, “global coal demand is expected to stabilize in the coming years” due to the strong growth of renewable energies, wrote the IEA in , for the period 2024 – 2027.
World coal trade is also expected to reach an all-time high, at 1.55 billion tons, while prices remain 50% above the average recorded between 2017 and 2019.
China is a “key actor”: a third of the coal consumed in the world is burned in Chinese power plants.
But demand for coal continues to increase in certain emerging economies such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam, depending on economic and demographic growth, the IEA highlighted.
“Asia remains at the center of international coal trade”, with all the main importing countries (China, India, Japan, Korea and Vietnam), while the largest exporters are Indonesia and Australia.
On the other hand, in most advanced economies, coal demand has already peaked by 2027, he said.
“The rapid deployment of clean energy technologies is transforming the global energy sector, which accounts for two-thirds of global coal consumption,” explained IEA Director of Energy Markets and Security, Keisuke Sadamori.
“However, climate factors, particularly in China, the world’s largest coal consumer, will have a major impact on near-term coal demand trends.”
As a result of these uncertainties, coal demand in China by 2027 could be 140 million tons higher or lower than predicted, depending, for example, on winter temperatures.
