Coal is a key contributor to planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, and phasing it out is crucial to taming climate change.
The growing affordability and abundance of renewable energy means solar and wind power can now cover growing electricity demand in much of the world.
That helped push coal generation down globally by 0.6% in 2025 from a year earlier, according to a new report from Global Energy Monitor, which has tracked coal power for more than a decade.
But despite the generation drop, coal power capacity -- plants that came online or were commissioned -- jumped 3.5% last year.
The overwhelming majority of that -- 95% -- was in China and India, GEM said.
