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April 4, 2025 - Boom and Bust is an annual survey of the global coal fleet by Global Energy Monitor and partners. The report analyzes key trends in coal power capacity and tracks various stages of capacity development including planned retirements. This provides key insights into the status of the global phaseout of coal power and evaluates progress towards the world’s climate targets and commitments. The data comes from GEM’s Global Coal Plant Tracker, an online database updated biannually, with partial quarterly supplements, that identifies and maps every known coal-fired generating unit and every new unit proposed since January 1, 2010 (30 MW and larger). Global Energy Monitor's data serves as a vital international reference point used by organizations including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, International Energy Agency, and the United Nations, as well as global media outlets. In 2024, global coal power additions dropped to their lowest level in 20 years, yet the world’s coal fleet continued to grow, according to Global Energy Monitor’s annual survey of the global coal fleet. Data from the Global Coal Plant Tracker show that 44.1 gigawatts (GW) of coal power capacity was commissioned while 25.2 GW was retired in 2024, resulting in a net increase of 18.8 GW. The capacity commissioned was nearly 30 GW below the annual average for 2004 to 2024 (72 GW) — a sign of the continued slowdown in global coal construction.
Even so, retirements have not kept pace with new additions. Global coal capacity rose to 2,175 GW, up 259 GW since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015. Most of this growth came from China, which commissioned 30.5 GW of coal power capacity in 2024 — 70% of the global total — and saw 94.5 GW in new construction starts, the highest in nearly a decade. Outside China, coal power capacity decreased by 9.2 GW, as retirements (22.8 GW) exceeded new additions (13.5 GW) in the rest of the world. In the EU27, retirements quadrupled year over year, reaching 11 GW, while the UK shut down its last coal plant, becoming the sixth country to complete a coal phaseout since 2015. But elsewhere, progress stalled. Retirements slowed in the United States, falling to 4.7 GW — the country’s lowest level in a decade. At the same time, India recorded its highest-ever level of new coal proposals, totaling 38.4 GW. But outside of China and India, new proposals fell to just 8.8 GW — the lowest level since 2015 — highlighting a continued contraction of the coal project pipeline across most of the world. As new proposals have declined globally, coal development has become increasingly concentrated in fewer countries. Just ten countries now account for 96% of coal power capacity under development, with China and India alone responsible for 87%. This consolidation reflects the accelerating exit from coal in much of the world, even as a small group of countries continues to pursue large-scale expansion. In the 38 countries comprising the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the shift away from coal has been especially pronounced: The number of coal plant proposals has dropped from 142 in 2015 to just five today. But despite this progress, coal retirements in OECD countries need to more than triple — from 19 GW to 70 GW annually — to align with the Paris Agreement. 
Coal exits gather speed in Europe, while major economies fall behind Retirements surged in Europe in 2024, with the EU27 retiring 11 GW of coal capacity — a fourfold increase over 2023. Germany led the way, retiring 6.7 GW, while the United Kingdom completed its coal phaseout — a key milestone in Europe’s broader shift away from coal. These shifts underscore the accelerating pace of coal retirements across much of Europe. All but three EU countries are now planning to be coal-free by 2033, and both Ireland and Spain are expected to complete their phaseouts in 2025. Still, at least seven EU countries have timelines that will need to be accelerated to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. But elsewhere, progress was far less consistent. In the United States, coal retirements fell to 4.7 GW, the country’s lowest annual total since 2014. The slowdown extends a trend that began in 2021, as fewer plants are being scheduled for closure and more retirements face delays. Coal plant retirements in the U.S. are expected to pick up over the next few years. Despite the Trump administration’s support for coal, more coal was retired during Trump’s first term than under Obama or Biden — a trend that is set to continue.
Meanwhile, China’s retirements remained minimal, leaving the country off track to meet its 30 GW retirement goal under the current 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025). With far more plants being added than taken offline, China’s coal fleet continued to expand — underscoring the challenge of achieving net reductions without a formal phaseout policy.
China and India defy the global coal decline While most of the world moved away from coal in 2024, China and India continued to drive large-scale development, expanding their coal pipelines even as many other countries backed away. In China, a surge in construction activity followed an unprecedented permitting boom in 2022 and 2023, during which more than 200 GW of coal capacity was approved — more than the size of the entire U.S. coal fleet. In 2024, 94.5 GW of that capacity moved into construction, the country’s highest level of construction starts since 2015. If not curtailed, this wave of new coal plants could undermine President Xi Jinping’s pledge to strictly limit the growth in coal consumption by 2025. Meanwhile, India proposed 38.4 GW of new coal power in 2024 — the highest annual total on record. The country plans to build more than 90 GW of new coal by 2032, even as it targets 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030. Although many countries have now committed to phasing out coal, the ongoing expansion in China and India threatens to offset global progress. Outside Asia’s giants, momentum toward phaseout grows In Southeast Asia, several countries are moving toward a managed exit from coal. New proposals have dwindled across the region, driven by phaseout pledges in Indonesia and Malaysia, a moratorium on coal plant permitting in the Philippines, and the development of just transition planning in Vietnam. Indonesia presents a more complicated picture. While the country appears on track to retire 9.2 GW of coal by 2030, and President Prabowo has pledged to phase out coal power by 2040, a major challenge is emerging: the rapid growth of captive coal plants — those supplying electricity directly to industrial facilities. These plants fall outside the grid-based retirement pledges and risk repeating the pattern of the past decade’s buildout: overcapacity, cost overruns, and controversy. Meanwhile, in Turkiye, coal power expansion has nearly ground to a halt, as the country’s pipeline of new proposals has collapsed — leaving just one remaining project (0.7 GW). This puts the country on the verge of joining other OECD nations in eliminating all unabated coal plant proposals. In Latin America, countries are approaching a full exit from coal. Only Brazil and Honduras still have coal proposals on the books, and even those have lingered for years without progress. In 2024, Panama committed to phasing out coal power by 2026, joining a growing group of countries in the region moving toward coal-free electricity. But while most of Latin America is phasing out coal, Brazil remains home to the last coal plant proposal over 100 megawatts in Latin America, and its coal subsidies are drawing growing criticism. Brazilian ratepayers are set to spend R$8 billion (US$1 billion) between 2020 and 2027 to support just two coal plants, with the Brazilian Congress currently debating a R$92 billion (US$16 billion) extension through 2050. These measures risk locking in coal for decades, despite clear regional momentum in the opposite direction. In Africa, coal development remains limited but not absent. Most countries in the region are prioritizing renewables and gas, and no new coal plants were commissioned in 2024. Still, new proposals emerged in Zimbabwe and Zambia, largely backed by Chinese developers — despite the Chinese government’s 2021 pledge to stop building new coal plants overseas. These projects stand out as exceptions in a region where coal activity has stalled, and raise concerns about fossil fuel lock-in in emerging energy systems. While most OECD countries have moved away from coal, Japan and South Korea remain notable holdouts. Both countries continued to build and plan new coal plants in 2024, placing them increasingly out of step with international climate commitments and the broader shift among high-income economies. In an effort to justify ongoing coal use, Japan and South Korea jointly agreed in 2024 to promote ammonia co-firing at coal plants as an “emissions reduction” strategy. But this approach has drawn criticism for prolonging the life of coal infrastructure and falling short of what’s needed to align with the Paris Agreement. Coal phaseouts are lagging where they matter most While much of the world continues to move away from coal power, the pace of retirements and project cancellations remains far too slow to meet global climate goals. The divide between progress and continued buildout widened in 2024. Many countries completed or accelerated coal exits, while others ramped up new construction. This uneven trajectory has left the global coal transition off pace for aligning with the Paris Agreement. |
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