Global Coal Generation Declines, Even as China, India Race to Build New Plants

E360 Digest

May 22, 2026

The world added dozens of new coal power plants last year in what amounted to the biggest coal buildout in a decade, according to a new analysis. And yet, the amount of electricity generated by coal power plants globally declined.

“In 2025, the world built more coal and used it less,” said Christine Shearer of Global Energy Monitor, which undertook the analysis.

Coal capacity, a measure of how much electricity power plants can conceivably produce, rose by 3.5 percent last year, it found. And yet coal generation slipped by 0.6 percent as coal lost ground to wind and solar.

China and India accounted for 95 percent of the coal capacity added in 2025, but in these countries coal is being displaced by renewable energy. Last year coal generation fell by 1.2 percent in China and by 2.9 percent in India as record additions of wind and solar nearly met the growth in demand. 

The trend seen in China and India is not without precedent. The U.S. continued to add coal power plants even after generation began to fall. While coal generation peaked in 2007, capacity continued to grow until 2011.

Most wealthy nations and, increasingly, much of the developed world have stopped building coal power plants. Last year, according to the analysis, Latin America shelved the last of its coal power proposals.

The retreat of coal is helping to slow the rise in emissions globally, analyses show. “The central challenge heading into 2026 is not the availability of alternatives but the persistence of policies that treat coal as necessary even as power systems move increasingly beyond it,” Shearer said.

In its latest Five-Year Plan, China softened an earlier pledge to phase down coal power. Analysts say the plan will ensure that China continues to build more coal power plants.

Globally, 70 percent of coal units that were slated for retirement last year were kept online, the new report finds. European governments have turned to coal to help weather energy shocks rippling from the Ukraine War. In the U.S., federal officials have ordered several coal plants to stay online, a move they say will help meet growing power demand, even over the objections of state officials.