China (31.5% of total), the United States (13.0% of total) and India (8.1% of total) are the world’s three largest carbon emitters.
In 2023, these three nations accounted for more than half (52.6%) of the world’s carbon emissions.
As illustrated above, China and India are rapidly growing their emissions while the developed world is cutting back.
China’s and India’s emissions are being driven by their voracious appetites for coal.
China is by far the world’s largest coal producer, importer, and user, burning 30% more coal than the rest of the world combined.
In the decade to 2024, China’s thermal coal energy generation climbed by 51% to a record 6,344 billion kWh.
Chinese domestic coal output hit a record 4,759 million tonnes in 2024, up from 4,658 million in 2023 and 4,496 million in 2022, in response to government demands to boost inventories and ensure power reliability.
Chinese imports of coal surged to a record 543 million tonnes in 2024, up from 474 million in 2023 and 293 million in 2022.
Every quarter, the Chinese government issues construction permits for new coal-fired power plants and coal mines.
In 2024, thermal coal-fired energy generation accounted for two-thirds of all Chinese electricity generation.
India’s coal-fired electricity generation also hit a record high in 2024.
India’s coal-fired generation soared by 73% over the decade to 2023.
Coal accounted for three-quarters of total Indian electricity generation and the share has increased since the start of the century.
The Indian government has instructed coal generators to accelerate capacity additions, delay planned retirements, and purchase more equipment to maintain and expand capacity through at least 2030.
China and India have added to coal demand faster than the developed world has withdrawn.
Now the world’s second biggest emitter—the United States—has announced that it will open coal-fired power generators.
“After years of being held captive by Environmental Extremists, Lunatics, Radicals, and Thugs, allowing other Countries, in particular China, to gain tremendous Economic advantage over us by opening up hundreds of all Coal Fire Power Plants, I am authorizing my Administration to immediately begin producing Energy with BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN COAL,” President Trump wrote in a post on social media Monday.
Trump’s announcement is a massive reversal of decades of American environmental policy.
Coal currently accounts for only around 15% of all power generated in the United States, down from more than 50% in 2000, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
According to Statista, China (1,161), India (285), and the United States (204) had a combined 1,650 coal-fired power plants in operation in 2024, versus Australia’s 18.
Based on the above data and President Trump’s announcement, all three nations will expand their coal use in the years ahead.
This raises the obvious question: why should Australia—a rounding error on the world carbon stage—sacrifice itself at the ‘net zero’ altar when the three largest emitters won’t do the same?
As argued by global energy expert Doomberg:
If you just look at Australia’s carbon emissions compared to China’s, Australia’s carbon emissions are indistinguishable from the x-axis compared to China…
Since Australia’s emissions peaked in 2008, China has added 94 times to its emissions total what Australia has saved. It’s really remarkable…
Australia exports six to seven times more coal than it burns. Why not just burn as much as you need and export less? The planet would be no wiser…
It really is crazy that Australia has decided to only operate at the very front end of these critical supply chains and to not take advantage of its abundance of energy wealth to propel the value-added downstream manufacturing sector in the way the US has done with natural gas, for example…
The sidewalks of Australia should be lined with gold. Australia definitely has all the resources—coal, gas, uranium—to become an energy superpower.
Australia exports energy security to other countries, but there has been a war on those products for at least two decades…
If you want to be a martyr and you want to impel yourself at the altar of the Church of Carbon, that’s fine. But China is laughing at you. China is taking advantage of everything.
Australia should use what it already has in abundance—coal and gas—to give itself cheap and reliable energy and maintain its industrial capacity.
It makes no sense for Australia to export masses of coal and gas to China to burn, while denying itself the same opportunity. All this does is push up energy costs and drive manufacturing out of Australia to China, making Australia a less diversified and self-sufficient economy.
More broadly, the pursuit of ‘net zero’ emissions is futile without participation from China, India, and the United States.
Australia shouldn’t try to be a ‘net zero’ hero.
