By Tsvetana Paraskova

April 4, 2025 - The world added last year the smallest coal power capacity in 20 years, but the global fleet of coal-fired plants continued to grow despite the surge of renewables, data from Global Energy Monitor’s annual survey showed on Thursday.

A total of 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, according to data from the Global Energy Monitor’s Global Coal Plant Tracker.

The capacity commissioned was almost 30 GW below the annual average for 2004 to 2024, which was 72 GW. While that’s a sign of the continued slowdown in global coal construction, new coal capacity in China and India more than offset coal retirements in many developed nations.

Global coal capacity rose to 2,175 GW in 2024. This is a 259-GW increase since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015.

Most of the growth in the past decade and last year came from China, which commissioned 30.5 GW of coal power capacity in 2024. This capacity accounted for 70% of the global total last year. China also saw 94.5 GW in new construction starts, the highest in nearly a decade, according to the Global Coal Plant Tracker.

Meanwhile, India saw a record high level of new coal proposals, totaling 38.4 GW.

“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,” GEM said.

Just 10 countries – led by China and India – account for 96% of the ongoing global coal plant development, and these are mostly in Southeast Asia plus Russia, Kazakhstan, and Zimbabwe.

Developed economies have been reducing their use of coal in recent years, but the world isn’t ready to kick its coal addiction, not yet. Developing markets in Asia are boosting their coal-fired power generation to meet surging electricity demand.