Over the past two decades, coal generation has seen a significant increase of 78%, rising from 5,719 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2000 to 10,186 TWh in 2022. However, the proportion of coal in the global power generation mix has slightly declined, going from 38% in 2000 to 36% in 2022. It's important to note that no other single fuel source surpasses coal in terms of volume, although collectively, clean energy sources exceeded coal generation in 2019.

Following the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the annual growth rate of coal generation has slowed down considerably, averaging at 1.5% between 2015 and 2022, which is half the average rate observed between 2000 and 2015 (+3.2%). During the period from 2000 to 2015, the share of coal power in the electricity mix increased by one percentage point, from 38% to 39%. However, by 2022, this share had decreased to 36%.

Among the G20 countries, South Africa has consistently maintained the highest share of coal generation since 2015, followed by India as the second-highest and China as the third, with no change in their rankings. Most G20 nations have reduced their reliance on coal to varying degrees. The United Kingdom (UK) experienced the most significant decline in coal's share, dropping from 23% in 2015 to 1.6% in 2022.

According to the IEA Net Zero Emissions scenario, there is a need to reduce the global share of coal in the power mix to 12% by 2030. This represents a significant decrease of 24 percentage points from the 2022 level, which stood at 36%.

The IEA pathway specifies an annual coal decline of 8.3% from 2021 to 2030, in contrast to the trend since 2015, where coal has been increasing by 1.5% annually.

To align with the IEA requirements, OECD countries must phase out coal by 2030, followed by the rest of the world doing so by 2040.