World to continue to burn more coal

Coal will come close to outstripping oil as the world's top energy source by 2017, according to the latest projections from the International Energy Agency (IEA)

Coal met nearly half of the rise in global energy demand during the first decade of the 21st century and this trend is set to continue with 1.2 billion tonnes more coal predicted to be burned in 2017 than today.

Use of coal will increase throughout the world, except in the US, according to the IEA’s latest report, with demand led by the growing economies of China and India.

In the EU, the agency predicts that the current trend of rising coal consumption is close to peaking, and that increasing uptake of renewables will see coal demand in 2017 fall to levels similar to that of 2011.

Meanwhile, the latest statistics from DECC confirmed that, in the third quarter of 2012, coal-powered stations generated 35.4% of the UK’s electricity – its highest market share for 14 years.