Coal power in the world is down by three percent in 2019, according to a compilation of available data for the major coal-fired power countries by the Carbon Brief. Carbon Brief is a website linked to the World Nature Fund and is run by money from the European Climate Foundation.
In China, electricity consumption has increased much less than before and most of the additional electricity is from non-fossil sources. Coal power, which has risen sharply in previous years, has remained quiet this year, despite the fact that many new coal power plants have been built and built.
In the US, coal power has been declining for several years in a row, and is now declining by almost 14 percent. In India, coal power has decreased while all other sources have increased.
Decreases by 19 percent in the EU
In the EU, coal power has fallen by 19 percent, which is a result of a reform of emissions trading, which has made it much more expensive to burn coal.
In Vietnam, coal imports and coal power are increasing, but solar power is expected to increase from 134 megawatts in 2018 to 5000 megawatts by the end of 2019.
In South Korea, coal power is reduced by about ten percent due to a tax increase on coal and emissions trading. In South Africa, too, coal power decreases slightly.
Coal power in the world has only decreased twice before, in 2009 due to the financial crisis and 2015 after a decline in China. The race this year is expected to be considerably larger, 300 terawatt hours, than these years.
Carbon Brief has compared data for the first seven to ten months of 2019 and compared with the corresponding months of 2018.
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