The coal fleet grew by 19.5 gigawatts last year, enough to light some 15 million homes, with almost all of the coal projects newly commissioned in China, according to a report by Global Energy Monitor (GEM), an organization which tracks a variety of energy projects. Worldwide.
That 1% increase comes at a time when the world needs to retire its coal fleet four and a half times faster to meet climate targets, according to the report.
In 2021, countries around the world have pledged to phase out coal use to help meet the goal of limiting warming to 1.5ยฐC.
โThe more new coal projects come online, the steeper the cuts and commitments need to be going forward,โ said Flora Champenois, lead author of the report and project manager for GEM's Global Coal Plant Tracker.
New coal plants were added in 14 countries and eight countries announced new coal projects. China, India, Indonesia, Turkey and Zimbabwe were the only countries to add new coal plants and announce new projects. China accounted for 92% of all new coal project announcements.
China added 26.8 gigawatts and India added about 3.5 gigawatts of new coal power capacity to their power grids. China has also authorized nearly 100 gigawatts of new coal-fired power projects, with construction likely to begin this year.
But "the long-term trajectory is still towards clean energy," said Shantanu Srivastava, an energy analyst at the New Delhi-based Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
In Europe, where the Russian invasion of the Ukraine meant a scramble for alternative energy sources and droughts stifled hydropower, the continent saw only a very small increase in the use of coal.
Others went the other way. There were significant blackouts in the US, where 13.5 gigawatts of coal power was retired. It is one of 17 countries that closed plants last year.
With nearly 2,500 power plants worldwide, coal accounts for about a third of the total number of power installations globally. Other fossil fuels, nuclear power, and renewables make up the rest.
To meet the climate targets set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement, coal plants in rich countries must close by 2030 and coal plants in developing countries must close by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency.
That means about 117 gigawatts of coal must be retired each year, but only 26 gigawatts will be retired in 2022.
โAt this rate, the transition from existing to new coal is not happening fast enough to avoid climate chaos,โ Ms Champenois said.
