Coal remains the main energy source to produce electricity...

Coal remains the main energy source to produce electricity

despite increasing international awareness of the risks of global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions, some major economies are unable to substitute their coal-based electricity with less carbon-intensive energies. Indeed, coal is mainly used for electricity production, with two-thirds of world consumption going to electricity production; this proportion rises to three-quarters if China and India, which traditionally have more widespread uses, are excluded; the rest of consumption goes to industry (mainly steel).

Worldwide, coal consumption for electricity generation is almost growing at the same rate as the electricity consumption (2.8% per year versus 3% per year between 2000 and 2017). As a result, the share of coal in the power mix has almost remained steady for the past 20 years around 40%.

Countries turning newly to coal

What's even more surprising in the context of widespread action to fight climate change is that some 20 countries are turning to coal, including nine in Africa (DRC, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambican, Niger, Senegal and Tanzania), three in Central America (Panama, Salvador and Dominican Republic), two in the Middle East (UAE and Jordan) and three in Asia (Bangladesh, Cambodia and Myanmar).

By 2025, more than 65 coal-fired power plants could be commissioned in these countries, representing a capacity of 50 GW

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-02-coal-consumption-worldwide.html