World consumption of coal will reach a new record for the third consecutive year in 2024. Some 8.77 billion tonnes of coal will be consumed this year, an increase of 1% compared to last year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday in Paris. Last year, the IEA was still optimistic that a peak could be reached in 2023. Now the peak is not expected until 2027.

At the same time, it is becoming clear that 2024 will be the world's hottest year on record since observations began. It will also be the first year in which the warming threshold will be exceeded by 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times. Scientists stress the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the adverse effects of warming.

The new record, like last year's, was set primarily by China. Although the country has started to expand its renewable energy sources, its coal consumption will reach a new high of 4.9 billion tonnes, the IEA says.

As demand for coal continues to grow in China, as well as in India and Indonesia, it is shrinking in the EU and the US, albeit at a much slower pace than last year. This year, according to the IEA, the EU is forecast to decline by 12% – in 2023 &ndash it was still 23%. In the United States, after a 17% drop last year, demand is now down only 5%.
The IEA also noted that energy demand will continue to grow due to the development of data centres for artificial intelligence applications.

At the World Climate Conference in Dubai in 2023, nearly 200 countries agreed for the first time to call for a "transition" away from fossil fuels. But at the UN climate conference in Baku in November, participants refused to endorse the decision.