King Coal is Far From Dead

China depends on coal for over 60% of its power

Nearly one-third of America’s electricity still comes from coal, providing the baseload generation that keeps the grid stable when wind and solar can’t meet demand.

Retirement of coal fired power plants in the West has done nothing to reverse global coal demand. Global operating coal power capacity has increased by 13% since 2015. ⁽²⁾

Despite decades of climate alarmism calling for king coal to be consigned to the ash-heap of history it remains vital, especially in developing countries like China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam. In any credible scenario, the importance of coal to the economic growth aspirations of developing countries is not going to appreciably change over the next few decades.

China depends on coal for over 60% of its power and approved two new plants every week in 2024. China’s coal output in the first six months of 2025 rose 5% on the year.

India celebrated a new record of producing over one billion tons of coal in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, demonstrating its dedication to energy security and self-reliance. India relies on coal for nearly three quarters of its electricity supply. Indonesia, the fourth largest consumer in the world after China, India, and the US expressed reservations over reducing its reliance on coal power after the US quit the Paris Agreement soon after President Trump took office. Like China, coal supplies over 60% of Indonesia’s electricity needs. ⁽³⁾

India is on track to burn as much coal as the US and Europe put together

India is on track to burn as much coal as the US and Europe put together—possibly within the year—while China has already surged ahead, consuming 30% more coal than every other nation combined.⁽³⁾

Southeast Asia (ASEAN) nations are committing hundreds of billions of dollars to fossil fuel infrastructure that will operate for decades. Coal plants have an average lifespan of 40 years. These capital investments create long-term commitments to hydrocarbon use that extend far beyond political cycles. ⁽⁴⁾

Zambia and Zimbabwe are restarting coal fired plants and advancing new coal projects to improve their energy security amidst power crisis.

With African energy production on the rise, South Africa remains the continent’s largest coal producer and consumer. State power utility Eskom uses coal to generate more than 70% of its electricity and recently added 800 megawatts of capacity to help stabilize the power grid.

Europe

Within the last decades, a number of European countries have moved away from coal to pursue (1) natural gas: not only does 90% of gas have to be imported but it is also the fuel with the greatest price volatility and (2) wind: despite its intermittency, a vast array of hidden costs and the need for never ending subsidies. The decline of coal is real. In 2015 coal produced 23% of UK electricity but has now disappeared from the scene. In Germany, coal produced 44% of electricity just 10 years ago but merely 22% in 2025. And in Italy, 17% of electricity was produced by coal in 2015, but now that number is barely 1%. ⁽⁵⁾

High energy costs due to carbon reduction goals are driving de-industrialization in Europe. Average electricity prices for heavy industries in the EU remain roughly twice those in the US and 50% above China. Germany has the highest domestic electricity prices in the developed world, while the UK has the highest industrial rates. Energy prices have also grown more volatile as the share of renewables increased.

Bjorn Lomborg was very blunt, “Europe is committing economic suicide with the climate change cult.”

United States

The ‘War Against Coal’ is pervasive, relentless and heavily funded. Multi-billionaire Michael Bloomberg has committed $500 million to eliminate coal and his support for the Sierra club’s ‘Beyond Coal’ campaign is clear. “We want to close all coal plants.” As many as 200 lawyers and organizers have been hired to litigate and work against coal. ⁽⁶⁾

The Obama and Biden administrations worked to make it impossible to mine coal. Inevitably, coal production went down the tube, as did many, many communities that were decimated by these administrations’ policies. ⁽⁷⁾

Coal burning generating capacity in the US is down 45% from its 2011 peak. Even more telling, coal generation on a national scale is a shadow of its former self. In the 1980s, coal accounted for almost 60% of all kilowatt-hours produced in the US. In 2024, coal’s share was down to about 15%. Even a year ago, the coal fired power segment looked like it was on the verge of extinction. ⁽³⁾

Trump’s energy counter revolution has upended the narrative of coal’s demise in the US.

Coal is staging a comeback in the United States. US power demand is driven by rapid energy-intensive growth in AI digital infrastructure, data centers and crypto mining. Combined with an estimated $2.8 trillion of announced new investment in President Trump’s push for restoring manufacturing activity since he took office, the expected surge in demand for power will be unprecedented. Despite the availability of fracked natural gas and the potential for a nuclear renaissance, the pace and scale of growth in power demand suggests that coal will play a critical role in America’s prospective energy balance. ⁽³⁾

President Trump’s April 2025 executive order fast-tracks projects like Warriors Met’s Blue Creek in Alabama, which will boost metallurgical coal output by 60% for export markets. Additionally, the US approved the expansion of the Spring Creek Mine in Montana, enabling nearly 40% million tons of coal to be mined over the next 16 years. ⁽⁸⁾

The challenge facing the administration is enormous. US electricity demand is projected to fully double by 2050 with a remarkable jump in demand already underway. A recent forecast sees demand rising 128 gigawatts over just the next five years, equivalent to adding 80 million homes to our already overstretched and under-supplied grid. With months of fuel on site and the world’s largest coal reserves, the coal fleet is the nation’s ace in the hole to underpin reliability and dispatchable fuel diversity. ⁽⁷⁾

Summary

Modern society depends on continuous, reliable electricity not only for lighting and appliances but also for transportation, industrial production, communication, and the maintenance of public health systems. From the cooling of vaccines and surgical procedures to the operation of telecommunications networks, the constant availability of power is essential. ⁽⁹⁾

Wind and solar simply cannot fulfill all these roles without substantial backup from other electricity generating sources, primarily coal, natural gas, or nuclear power.

Even in regions rich in wind and solar potential, seasonal variations and extended periods of calm or cloudiness create substantial supply vulnerabilities.

Wind and solar depend on weather and daylight. They can’t produce a baseload power consistently and need fossil fuel or nuclear power generated electricity as backup.

In November 2025, we were exactly a quarter century removed from the millennial panic, the Kyoto Protocol hype, and the first wave of irrevocable tipping points that were supposedly coming in ten years.

We were told that fossil fuels had to be phased out immediately, or the planet would warm by 5-6 C by 2100. Twenty-five years, multiple trillions of dollars, millions of wind turbines and solar panels, and countless ‘last chance’ climate summits later.

Fossil fuels supplied 88% of global primary energy in 2000. In 2024 they supplied 86%. Let that sink in. ⁽¹⁰⁾

King Coal is far from dead—it’s fueling America’s future, as it is in much of the rest of the world.

References

1. Chris Hamilton, “America’s coal industry: still powering the nation and worth defending,” realclearenergy.org, November 5, 2025
2. Tsvetana Paraskova, “The end of coal is nowhere in sight,” oilprice.com, February 13, 2025
3. Tilak Doshi, “The rise and rise of king coal,” tilakdoshi.substack.com, June 12, 2025
4. “In ASEAN (Southeast Asia) nations, coal is a physical manifestation of progress,” cornwallalliance.org, September 11, 2025
5. Frank Clemente and Fred Palmer, Europe: paying the price for closing coal (part 1),” realclearenergy, December 15, 2025
6. Frank Clemente and Fred Palmer, “The US without coal? Good luck,” realclearenergy.com, July 10, 2025
7. Liberty Vittert, “Cutting coal only hurts the US and won’t stop climate change,” thehill.com, April 20, 2025
8. Vijay Jayaraj, “Big beautiful coal,” cornwallalliance.org, June 30, 2025
9. Ronald Stein, “Fossil fuels keep the lights on while wind and solar fall short,” principia-scientific.com, August 2, 202510.
10. Cornwall Alliance, “The transition that never transitioned: fossil fuels still powered 86% of the world in 2024.” cornwallalliance.org, November 20, 2025