Coal On The Rise In Spite of Death Warnings

President Biden said recently that "we're going to be shutting coal plants down all across America having wind and solar."

Obituaries for coal have been announced ad nauseam, most recently at last year's UN climate change COP26 summit in Edinburgh. Yet there has been an eight fold price surge in coal since September 2020 to over $430 per ton two years later from prices that ranged between $50-$150 a ton through the past decade. This was led by a resurgence of demand after the pandemic lockdowns--especially in China and India, the worlds two largest coal consumers accounting for two-thirds of the world total--but also in Japan, South Korea, Europe and the US. ⁽¹⁾

Except for a few tiny nations, the rest of the world may be giving lip service to coal's coming funeral. But in the real world, global power generation from coal rose nine percent in 2021 and many Asian nations are increasing their reliance on the tried and true provider of heat and electricity. ⁽²⁾