2024, the hottest year, also sees record demand for coal

>> Big banks still addicted to coal, according to research center

>> LNG, greener or grayer than coal, a complicated question

“After reaching a record high in 2024, global coal demand is expected to stabilize“until 2027 due to the strong progression of renewable energies, writes the IEA in its annual report on coal in the world for the period 2024-2027.

Demand is expected to reach 8.77 billion tonnes this year, the agency said. Global coal trade is also expected to reach an unprecedented level in volume, with 1.55 billion tonnes, while prices remain 50% higher than the average observed between 2017 and 2019.

This new record echoes another: 2024 will be the first year beyond the threshold of 1.5°C of warming compared to the pre-industrial period, the long-term limit set by the Paris agreement, according to the observatory European Copernicus.

Last year had already been marked by these same excesses: 2023 had been the hottest year so far and global demand for coal had reached the historic level of 8.53 billion tonnes.

“Our models show that global coal demand is expected to stabilize through 2027, even as electricity consumption increases sharply“, says Keisuke Sadamori, director of energy markets at the IEA.

“Rapid deployment of clean energy technologies is transforming the global electricity sector, which accounts for two-thirds of global coal consumption“, he adds, emphasizing that the speed of growth in electricity demand “will also be decisive in the medium term“.

China is the market leader: a third of the coal consumed in the world is burned in Chinese power plants, according to the agency.

It is followed by certain emerging economies such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam, where strong growth in electricity demand is driven by economic and demographic growth.

“Asia remains at the center of international coal trade“, says the agency, with all the largest importing countries (China, India, Japan, Korea and Vietnam), while among the largest exporters are Indonesia and Australia.

AFP/VNA/CVN