Executive summary
Top Coal Power Countries
Ranking of the countries generating most coal-fired electricity in 2020
Ember’s recent Global Electricity Review revealed that coal generation fell a record 4% (-346 TWh) in 2020. However, coal remains the world’s single largest power source, generating 34% of global electricity in 2020 (8736 TWh). As the most carbon-intensive source of electricity, coal power needs to fall by 14% every year this decade to put the world on course for net zero by 2050. That means that OECD countries must stop burning coal for power by 2030 and the rest of the world by 2040.
But which countries need to do the heavy lifting in the next two decades? We rank the top 25 countries by the total terawatt-hours (TWh) of coal-fired electricity they generated in 2020.
The top four countries – China, India, the United States and Japan – are responsible for over three-quarters of the world’s coal-fired electricity (76%, 6,626 TWh).
"Progress is nowhere near fast enough. Despite coal’s record drop during the pandemic, it still fell short of what is needed. Coal power needs to collapse by 80% by 2030 to avoid dangerous levels of warming above 1.5 degrees. We need to build enough clean electricity to simultaneously replace coal and electrify the global economy. World leaders have yet to wake up to the enormity of the challenge."
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