Coal clinging on in South and East Asia

Global demand for coal to power continues to be king, but the upside may be limited

Global coal consumption may have peaked in 2013 at a shade under 3.9bn t oe but its legacy infrastructure may give it an in-built resilience to ensure that any decline is both shallow and long. For all the fanfare about coal's demise, figures from the recently released BP Statistical Review show that 2018 demand sat merely 2.4pc below peak, and coal last year was a competitive grower in both global power generation and on the broader measure of global energy. Details were revealing. World demand for electricity soared by 3.65pc in 2018, to an all-time record high of 938.2TWh. Despite combined wind and solar providing 273TWh of that growth, 'king coal' was still the winner, providing 294TWh.