Continued expansion in China’s coal fleet and a slowdown in plant retirements in the United States and Europe in 2023 resulted in the highest net increase in global operating coal capacity since 2016, Roman Bilousov from Enertus AG said.

While the slower retirements outside China are expected to be a short-lived blip in a long-term trend, China’s massive annual additions of coal-fired capacity put the world’s second-largest economy “badly off track to meet several climate targets” this decade, Global Energy Monitor (GEM) and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) warned earlier this year.

Last year, global operating coal capacity increased by 2% as the world added a total of 69.5 gigawatts (GW) of coal power, with China representing two-thirds of new additions, according to GEM’s Global Coal Plant Tracker for 2023.

Worldwide, coal-fired power plant retirements were only 21.1 GW in 2023—the lowest capacity retired since 2011.

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