China Burns More Coal Than Everyone Else Combined

China Burns More Coal Than Everyone Else Combined

China accounted for 55.6% of world coal consumption in 2025. One country burns more coal than every other country put together.

Outside China, coal use has been close to a flat line since the late 1980s. That flat line hides a rotation underneath it. Coal fired power has retreated sharply in Europe and the United States while India and Southeast Asia picked it up, and the two roughly cancel out. India used about 14% of the world total last year, but its consumption grew only 0.6%, far below its own ten year average of 3.6%.

The part worth looking at is the right hand edge of the Chinese line. Chinese coal use was flat in 2025 rather than still climbing. Two things did it: weaker demand for coking coal from steelmaking, and a large increase in solar generation. The International Energy Agency goes further, reporting that coal fired power generation fell about 1.5% in China and about 3% in India last year. Global coal consumption grew just 0.7%.

So the curve that climbs across the whole chart has already turned flat in its final year.

That does not make the turn certain. Flat and falling are different things, and single year figures swing with hydro conditions and the economy. But in any argument about global emissions, the question about the Chinese line has moved from how much longer it rises to where it settles.

Source: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 2026 and the International Energy Agency (Image: @OurWorldInData)