Coal: in a burning world, the dark side of energy still rules.

Abstract

The world registered record temperatures in the last years, with 2024 being the hottest year ever recorded and the first one to surpass the 1.5ºC limit defined by the Paris Agreement. Coal was key to the Industrial Revolution and along with petroleum, was essential to world development. However, coal is the most pollutant of fossil fuels, generating more CO₂ and particulate material. Coal-derived air pollution is associated with several diseases including respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lower respiratory infections, cerebrovascular disease, ischaemic heart disease and lung cancer. Air pollution caused by coal and other fossil fuels causes millions of deaths a year. Despite its negative impacts on human health and climate change, coal has been extensively used for electricity generation in the last four decades and is still responsible for more than 35% of all the electricity produced in the world, with countries like Australia, Indonesia, Poland, India and China showing a much higher coal dependency from 45% to 75% in 2023. However, countries like UK, Denmark, Portugal and Spain heavily reduced coal use showing that a transition away from coal is possible and could be used by other nations.