Global coal power growth hits 20-year low in 2024

Worldwide coal fleet saw a marginal increase of less than 1% last year.

The world saw its lowest coal power increase in two decades, with just 44 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity added in 2024, according to Global Energy Monitor’s (GEM) latest report.

In the tenth edition of its “Boom and Bust Coal” report, GEM said this trend is a “sign of the ongoing decline of this heavily polluting energy source."

Data on GEM’s Global Coal Plant Tracker showed that coal fleet inched up less than 1% in 2024, for a net increase of 18.8 GW. This was as 25.2 GW of retired capacity cut into the record low additions due to a quadrupling of retirements in the European Union.

The decline in new capacity was reflected in most parts of the world “by a drying up of the pipeline of under development coal capacity — projects that have been announced or are in the pre-permit, permitting and construction phases.”

GEM said only eight countries proposed new coal plants last year from twelve in 2023. In the wealthier 38 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, coal plant proposals are down from 142 in 2015 to five.

Specifically in Southeast Asia, new coal proposals also fell due to the phaseout pledges in Indonesia and Malaysia, a moratorium on coal plant permitting in the Philippines, and the development of just transition planning in Vietnam. Indonesia was the only country to propose new coal plants in the region.

However, the global phaseout continues to face challenges due to developments in China and India. 

Beijing’s surge in coal plant permits from 2022 to 2023 was immediately followed by record-high construction starts. GEM warned that if this is not immediately addressed, "the wave of new coal plants could undo President [Xi Jinping’s] pledge to strictly limit the growth in coal consumption through 2025."

India also proposed a record number of new coal plants in 2024. Whilst the Indian government has committed to “phase down” the use of coal, it has yet to set a formal timeline for this.

“Last year was a harbinger of things to come for coal as the clean energy transition moves full speed ahead. But work is still needed to ensure coal power is phased out in line with the Paris climate agreement, particularly in the world’s wealthiest nations,” said Christine Shearer, project manager of GEM’s Global Coal Plant Tracker.