Editorial: Despite climate concerns, coal use worldwide grows

The Paris-based agency said in a new report that while coal use grew by only 1.2% in 2022, the increase pushed it to an all-time high of more than 8 billion metric tons, beating the previous record set in 2013, the Associated Press reported.

“The world’s coal consumption will remain at similar levels in the following years in the absence of stronger efforts to accelerate the transition to clean energy,” the agency said, noting that “robust demand” in emerging Asian economies would offset declining use in mature markets.

Interestingly, the agency’s report came the day before the owners of the former Philip Sporn Plant took most of that structure down early on Dec 17. Appalachian Power, the plant’s former owner, retired the plant in 2015 because of new air pollution regulations. Appalachian Power decided the coal-burning plant was too small to justify the investment of new pollution control technology.

So while coal use in the United States decreases, demand elsewhere more than makes up for our cutbacks.

Modern society runs on electricity. The rest of the world wants the standard of living we have here in the United States. That requires electricity. So far renewables and carbon-neutral generating sources have not been able to meet the demand. There aren’t enough solar panels, wind turbines and hydroelectric dams to supply the need.

Coal can be stored on site, so it’s not as vulnerable to delivery problems as natural gas during times of conflict, as Europeans have discovered. Nuclear power could stage a comeback with new technology, but widespread deployment is at least a decade away.

So the world is stuck with coal. It’s probably a temporary situation, as renewable sources and nuclear advancement will catch up sooner or later.

The resurgence of coal is not something West Virginia officials should bank on. According to the AP, South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam have signed investment agreements with rich partner countries over the past year that will help them boost efforts to shift to renewable sources such as wind and solar.

State officials can take advantage of coal’s surge for now, but they also need to prepare for the day when this surge has run its course.