There has been no more dramatic story in the world of energy over the last 20 years than the rise and fall of coal.
In the early 2000s, coal fueled China’s rapid growth. From 2000 to 2013, coal consumption in the country grew at a ludicrous pace of 12 percent a year on average, from 1.36 billion tons annually to 4.24 billion. For a while, China was burning over half of global coal output. Coal producers across the world flourished and many believed the “economic miracle” would go on forever.
It didn’t. In the early 2010s, China’s manufacturing-driven boom began slowing, cheap fracked gas took off the in the US, the world woke up to climate change, and renewable energy began its unstoppable march down the cost curve.
The result has been an extraordinary reversal of fortunes for coal at a time when it’s clearer than ever that we must stop using fossil fuels as soon as possible. Read more…
