USA: The burning of coal for electricity, cement, steel, and other purposes increased in 2022 despite global commitments to reduce the fuel, which is the main contributor to the atmosphere's greenhouse gas emissions.
According to a report by Global Energy Monitor, a group that keeps track of various energy projects around the world, the coal fleet increased by 19.5 gigawatts last year, enough to light up about 15 million homes, with nearly all newly commissioned coal projects in China.
This 1% increase occurs at a time when the world must retire its coal fleet four and a half times faster, according to the report, to meet climate goals. To help achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, countries around the world committed to reducing their use of coal in 2021. (2.7 Fahrenheit)
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The report's lead author and the project manager for GEM's Global Coal Plant Tracker, Flora Champenois, stated that as more new coal projects come online, the future cuts and commitments will need to be more drastic.
Eight countries announced new coal projects, and 14 countries added new coal plants. Only China, India, Indonesia, Turkey, and Zimbabwe added new coal plants while also announcing new projects. 92% of all new coal project announcements came from China.
Both China and India increased their electricity grids' coal power capacity by about 3.5 and 26.8 gigawatts, respectively. Additionally, China approved nearly 100 gigawatts of brand-new coal power projects, with the likelihood that construction will start this year.
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But according to Shantanu Srivastava, an energy analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis based in New Delhi, "the long term trajectory is still towards clean energy." According to Srivastava, some countries were temporarily pushed towards fossil fuels by the pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine.
Only a very slight increase in coal use was observed in Europe, where the Russian invasion of Ukraine caused a rush for alternative energy sources and droughts stifled hydropower.
Others took the opposite path. In the US, there were significant shutdowns that resulted in the retirement of 13.5 gigawatts of coal power. It was one of 17 nations that shut down factories last year.
Coal makes up about one-third of all installed energy capacity in the world, with close to 2,500 plants. The remainder is made up of nuclear energy, renewable energy, and other fossil fuels.
According to the International Energy Agency, coal plants in developed nations must be retired by 2030 and coal plants in developing nations must be shut down by 2040 in order to meet the climate goals outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement. This indicates that approximately 117 gigawatts of coal must be retired annually, but only 26 gigawatts were retired in 2022.
Champenois stated, "At this pace, the shift away from new and existing coal isn't happening quickly enough to prevent climate chaos."
The millions of people employed in the coal industry and other dirty industries must not be left behind, according to Srivastava, who also noted that doing so will become more challenging as more coal projects are committed to.
The longer we wait to switch to clean energy, the more difficult and expensive it will be to achieve our climate goals, according to Srivastava.
