Global coal consumption reached another record in 2025, seemingly contradicting years of discussion about phasing out the world’s most carbon-intensive fossil fuel.
But the headline number does not tell the whole story.
The latest Statistical Review of World Energy shows that global coal consumption rose to 166.0 exajoules last year. That represented an increase of 0.7% from 2024.
At the same time, global electricity generation from coal declined. Coal-fired power production fell 0.3% to 10,511 terawatt-hours.
Those two trends are not mutually exclusive. Coal is used not only to generate electricity, but also in steelmaking, cement production, and other industrial processes. The divergence also reflects a changing geographic picture in which coal is declining across much of the developed world while remaining deeply embedded in Asia’s industrial economy.
A Record With Important Qualifications
Coal consumption reached a record in absolute terms, but it did not keep pace with overall energy demand.
Total global energy supply increased from 592.2 exajoules in 2024 to 600.3 exajoules in 2025, an increase of about 1.4%. Coal grew more slowly, so its share of the global energy mix slipped from 27.9% to 27.7%. Thus, despite the global record in coal consumption, coal lost a small amount of market share.
This pattern appears frequently during energy transitions. A fuel can continue growing in absolute terms even as faster-growing alternatives reduce its share of the total. With global energy demand still rising, losing market share does not necessarily mean declining consumption.
Renewable energy provides a relevant comparison. Renewable energy supply increased by nearly 10% in 2025, far outpacing coal. But the world’s appetite for energy was large enough to accommodate growth in renewables and another record for coal at the same time.
Coal Is Increasingly an Asian Fuel
The most striking feature of the coal market is its geographic concentration.
Asia Pacific consumed 138.1 exajoules of coal in 2025, accounting for 83.2% of the global total. China alone consumed 92.2 exajoules, or 55.6% of all the coal used in the world.
India contributed another 23.1 exajoules, representing 13.9% of global consumption. Together, China and India accounted for almost 70% of the world’s coal use. Add Indonesia, and the three countries consumed nearly 73% of the total.
This is why broad statements about a global coal phaseout can be misleading. Coal may be steadily retreating in Europe and North America, but its future is increasingly being determined in Asia.
Non-OECD countries accounted for 85.2% of global coal consumption in 2025. Their coal use has grown at an average annual rate of 1.9% over the past decade. OECD consumption, by contrast, has declined at an annual rate of 4.8%.
Europe consumed just 4.4% of the world’s coal last year. The European Union’s share was only 2.8%, following another 3.2% decline in consumption.
The global total therefore combines two very different stories. One is a long-term retreat from coal across much of the developed world. The other is coal’s continued importance to the large and growing economies of Asia.
Coal-Fired Power Moved in the Opposite Direction
One surprise in the 2025 data is that coal-fired electricity generation declined even as total coal consumption increased.
China generated 5,756 terawatt-hours of electricity from coal, down 1.1% from 2024. India’s coal generation fell 3.0% to 1,464 terawatt-hours. Since those two countries produce nearly 69% of the world’s coal-fired electricity, relatively small percentage declines can have a large effect on the global total.
Coal generation across Asia Pacific declined 1.2%, while Europe posted another 3.4% decrease. The European Union’s coal generation fell 3.6% and accounted for only 2.6% of the global total.
The divergence between consumption and power generation indicates that coal demand outside the electric power sector helped support the record. Coal consumption statistics include industrial uses that are not captured by electricity-generation totals. Changes in plant efficiency, coal quality, inventories, and measurement can also prevent the two series from moving in perfect alignment.
Whatever the precise combination, the result is notable. The world consumed a record amount of coal while producing less electricity from it.
The United States Was the Major Exception
The United States broke sharply with the broader developed-world trend in 2025.
U.S. coal consumption rose 10.4% to 8.7 exajoules. Coal-fired electricity generation jumped 13.1% to 804 terawatt-hours, while domestic coal production increased 4.4%.
In absolute terms, the increase in U.S. coal consumption was larger than the net increase for the entire world. U.S. consumption rose by about 0.8 exajoules, while the global total increased by roughly 0.7 exajoules. Declines in several other countries offset part of the American increase.
Still, this should not be mistaken for a return to coal’s former dominance in the United States.
U.S. coal consumption remains about 62% below its 2005 peak. Coal-fired generation is approximately 63% below its 2007 high, and production is about 54% below its 1998 peak.
The 2025 increase was substantial, but it occurred within a long-term structural decline. The United States still accounted for just 5.3% of global coal consumption and 7.7% of global coal-fired generation.
Record Use Did Not Produce a Trade Boom
Global coal production remained near record levels at 180.8 exajoules, but it was essentially flat in 2025.
China increased production by 1.7% and supplied 52.4% of the world total. Its coal consumption was nearly unchanged, but its imports fell 10.1%. The combination suggests that increased domestic production displaced a meaningful amount of imported coal.
That shift helped push global coal trade down 3.1% to 35.3 exajoules. Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter, saw exports fall 7.4%. U.S. exports declined 11.5%, while Colombian exports plunged 21.3%.
Thus, record global consumption did not translate into record international trade. Much of the world’s coal is produced and consumed within the same countries, especially China and India.
The Big Picture
The 2025 data support neither the claim that coal is disappearing nor the claim that the energy transition has stopped.
Coal use reached a record, but its share of global energy declined. Coal-fired electricity generation fell, but industrial and other uses kept total consumption elevated. Coal rebounded sharply in the United States but remained far below its historical peak. Europe continued to move away from coal, while Asia accounted for more than four-fifths of global demand.
The coal market is no longer one unified global story. It is a widening divide between countries that are steadily reducing their dependence on coal and countries where it remains central to electricity, industry, and economic development.
That divide is likely to continue defining the coal market for many years.
