Asia Drove Global Coal to Another Record While Coal Power Shrank
Asia Pacific burned 83% of the world's coal in 2025, yet coal-fired generation fell globally as industrial demand growth outpaced power sector displacement.
Global coal consumption rose 0.7% in 2025 to set another record, according to the Statistical Review of World Energy published Friday (2026-07-31), even as coal-fired power production globally fell 0.3% to 10,511 terawatt-hours. The fuel burned more. It generated less electricity.6
Asia Pacific explains most of the headline. The region consumed 138.1 exajoules of coal in 2025, representing 83.2% of the global total, with China alone accounting for 92.2 exajoules, or 55.6% of world consumption. India added another 23.1 exajoules, a 13.9% share. Together the two countries set the pace while most of the rest of the world moved in the other direction.6
But the broader energy picture is more nuanced than a simple coal persistence story. Total global energy supply rose 1.4% to 600.3 exajoules from 592.2 exajoules in 2024, per the same Statistical Review, with coal growing slower than the overall mix so that its share of global primary energy slipped from 27.9% to 27.7%. Renewables expanded by nearly 10% in 2025, outpacing coal by a wide margin.6
Solar's rise in Asia complicates the generation picture further. Carbon Brief analysis published on June 12, 2026 (2026-06-12) found that solar had overtaken gas to become Asia's third-largest source of electricity, the first time that crossover had occurred. Coal and hydro remained the larger sources at that point, but generation-layer displacement was already under way even as industrial coal burn held the consumption total elevated.3
Asia's renewable buildout has run alongside that shift rather than ahead of it. The continent produced 4,589 terawatt-hours of renewable electricity in 2024, up 14.3% from the prior year, according to International Renewable Energy Agency data cited by asian-power.com on July 15, 2026 (2026-07-15). Capacity additions accelerated further in 2025 without reducing coal's absolute consumption, because electricity demand itself kept expanding faster.4
Demand forecasts leave little room for coal to back off. Asian-power.com reported on July 26, 2026 (2026-07-26) that China's power consumption is forecast to rise 5.5% and India's by 7%, with higher natural gas costs and supply disruptions squeezing import-dependent markets across the region. Asian LNG benchmark JKM was priced at $21.32 per MMBtu on Wednesday (2026-07-29), keeping gas-fired generation expensive for most Asian buyers without long-term supply contracts and supporting coal dispatch at current Newcastle physical prices of around $119.65 per tonne.5
Southeast Asia adds demand the grid is not built to absorb. A Bain & Company and Standard Chartered report from May 2026 (2026-05-20) projected that power demand from data centres, electric vehicles and green industrial parks across the sub-region would grow by more than 100 terawatt-hours over three to four years, requiring more than $200 billion in investment with more than half allocated to data centres alone.1,2
The same report estimated an $18 billion annual shortfall in grid investment through 2035. Where grid constraints force generators to dispatch whatever is closest and cheapest, new renewable capacity cannot reliably reach load centres and coal holds its position regardless.2
The Statistical Review data show a system adding energy on all fronts simultaneously. Coal's volume record and its falling power share reflect different end-uses: in China and India, coal consumed in steel mills, cement plants and chemical facilities does not flow through the grid, so renewable additions can reduce coal's generation share without touching industrial consumption. That distinction — generation displacement versus total demand displacement — explains why the global consumption headline keeps rising while the power output number falls. Southeast Asia's $18 billion annual grid investment shortfall has not begun to close, and if it persists as data centre load accelerates through 2027 and 2028, coal remains the default generation option where alternatives cannot yet connect.6,2