A new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) this week finds that global coal consumption has risen to a new high. Despite longstanding claims from countless green organisations, including the IEA itself, that coal is on its way to being phased out, replaced by the “unstoppable” rise of green energy, it seems the green ‘transition’ remains further away than was predicted. And this has dealt yet another blow to green hopes invested in China, where, it turns out, much of the growth in coal use has occurred.
The Guardian‘s activist-cum-energy-correspondent, Jillian Ambrose was first to the scene. ‘Coal use to reach new peak – and remain at near-record levels for years,’ she wailed. In a very short piece that rambles off on tangents about Russia and the U.K.’s closure of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power station in September, we learn that “consumption of the fossil fuel is now on track to rise to a new peak of 8.77 billion tonnes by the end of the year – and could remain at near-record levels until 2027”.
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