Critical coal dependency highlights climate action failures – A greener life, a greener world

By Anders Lorenzen

With less than two months to go to COP30, a joint climate report warns about our dependency on coal, which seems unshakeable.

The State of Climate Action 2025 report was produced by Bezos Earth Fund, Climate Analytics, ClimateWorks Foundation, the Climate High-Level Champions, and the World Resources Institute under the umbrella of Systems Change Lab.

Miles off emissions reduction targets

The report’s authors warn that we are miles away from being able to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees, and none of the 45 indicators tracking climate action show that countries are on track to meet their 2030 targets.

Climate advocates would be particularly concerned that the world is hardly making a dent in phasing out coal, the fossil fuel responsible for the highest carbon footprint, causing two-thirds of emissions.

Of the climate tracking indicators the researchers analysed, six are off track but moving in the right direction—though not as fast as is needed; twenty-nine are well off track—even though the direction of track is the right one, it is progressing far too slowly; five are headed in the wrong direction entirely, and five lack sufficient data to assess the process.

The coal conundrum

Coal power’s share of electricity generation has dropped only slightly in recent years. Although coal power’s share of global electricity generation has declined somewhat from 37 per cent in 2019 to 34 per cent in 2024, it is at a record high in absolute terms because of increased overall electricity demand.

Finance is keeping the coal economy alive, with the report revealing that the public is financing fossil fuels, with an annual increase of $75 billion since 2014 and reaching $1.5 trillion in 2023.

The researchers argue that a much faster coal phase-out is essential and must pick up speed to ten times today’s speed. The current trend of a 4% decline by 2030 is wholly inadequate. The scale needed is equivalent to retiring nearly 360 average-sized coal plants annually.

The coal powerhouse of China

At the country level, it is hardly surprising that China, on its own, is responsible for more than half of the world’s total coal power generation. However, in the world’s second-largest economy, coal decreased from 65 per cent of power generation in 2019 to 58 per cent in 2024. In absolute terms, though, coal power generation in China grew due to increased electricity demand. Another fast-growing developing economy, India, was responsible for another 14 per cent of the world’s coal power. India’s coal usage is steady at about 75 per cent of its electricity generation, though also growing in absolute terms due to electricity demand. 

Ultimately, all countries must reduce their absolute amount of coal power generation in order to limit warming to 1.5°C. 

However, the ongoing growth of renewable energy is a silver lining of hope that the scientists are clinging to.

Anders Lorenzen is the founding Editor of A greener life, a greener world.