China Produced 51.7% of All the Coal Mined on Earth in 2024. It Also Added a Germany-Sized Clean Energy Grid. Both Are Growing.
China coal production reached 4.78 billion tonnes in 2024. That is more than every other country on earth combined. 51.7% of all coal mined globally came from one country, according to the Statistical Review of World Energy 2025. India was second at 1.09 billion tonnes. Indonesia third at 836 million. The United States and Australia tied at roughly 465 million each. Russia at 427 million. After that it drops off a cliff.
This is the same country that added a Germany-sized clean electricity grid in a single year: 340 TWh of solar and 140 TWh of wind in 2025. The renewable buildout is real, and so is the mineral consumption embedded in it. The coal buildout is also real. Both are happening simultaneously and at a scale nobody else is remotely close to matching. The West keeps framing China’s energy story as a transition. China is running an energy addition story.
The Scale of China’s Coal Position
Six countries account for 87% of global coal supply. Asia-Pacific alone represents 80.3%. China is not just the largest coal producer. It is consuming almost 40% more coal than the rest of the world combined. The domestic energy system is built on coal at a scale that makes the country structurally dependent on it for baseload power in ways that renewable additions do not displace on any near-term timeline.
Coal plant retirements in China fell to just 2.5 gigawatts in 2024. The Chinese coal fleet now approaches 1,200 gigawatts. America’s entire coal fleet is approximately 175 gigawatts. China operates a coal power infrastructure that is nearly seven times the size of the entire US coal fleet, and it is adding to it, not winding it down.
Global coal demand hit a new record in 2024. Total global production reached 9.24 billion tonnes, up 0.9% year on year. The narrative that the energy transition is reducing coal demand is not yet visible in the aggregate data. What the data shows is that renewables are growing alongside coal, not instead of it.
Beijing Started 94.5 GW of New Coal Capacity in 2024
Beijing started 94.5 gigawatts of new coal-fired power capacity moving into construction in 2024, the highest construction pipeline in a decade, according to Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. China commissioned 30.5 GW of new coal power capacity in 2024, representing 70% of the global total for coal construction completions in that year. Outside China, coal power capacity actually decreased as retirements exceeded new additions.
The accelerated buildout followed an unprecedented permitting boom in 2022 and 2023, during which China approved more than 200 gigawatts of new coal capacity, more than the entire United States coal fleet. The coal plants currently under construction will come online through 2026 and 2027, adding further to a fleet that is already the largest in the world by a wide margin.
This creates a structural commitment to coal in China’s power system that cannot be unwound quickly. A coal power plant built today has a 30 to 40 year operating life. The capital deployed in the current construction cycle will be seeking returns through the 2050s. The financial incentive to use those plants once built is embedded in the investment decision.
This is the kind of analysis we publish daily in The Drill Down.
Energy Addition, Not Energy Transition
The West keeps framing China’s energy policy as a transition story. China is running an energy addition story. Every new solar farm and wind installation sits on top of a coal baseload that keeps growing, not one that is being retired. Electricity demand in China is rising rapidly, driven by artificial intelligence infrastructure, data centres, industrial electrification, and the expanding middle class. Renewables are meeting part of the new demand growth. Coal is meeting another part.
In 2024, despite double-digit growth in wind and solar generation, the share of thermal power plants in China’s overall energy mix actually rose from 35% to 37%, according to data from the Global Energy Association. More renewables and more coal simultaneously. This is not a contradiction in a system where total electricity demand is growing faster than any individual power source can supply. It is the arithmetic of energy addition.
The Diplomat has made the same point in different terms: rising coal output is not in itself a signal that coal is reclaiming dominance, but rather that coal’s function within the Chinese energy system is changing. Coal is evolving from the primary source to the indispensable backup. In a system where AI infrastructure and industrial demand keep driving electricity consumption higher, coal’s baseload role is not fading. It is becoming more structurally embedded.
What This Means for Global Commodity Markets
China’s simultaneous buildout of coal and renewables has direct implications for commodity markets. The renewable buildout means sustained demand for copper, silver, aluminium, rare earth elements, silicon, and lithium. The coal buildout means sustained demand for metallurgical coal, thermal coal, and steel. Both demand streams are real. They serve different parts of China’s energy system and they are not in competition with each other. On the copper side, the constraint is not demand visibility but the copper investment gap, where projects fail on financeability rather than on capital availability.
For Australian commodity exporters, this is the central reality of the China demand relationship. Australia exports thermal coal, metallurgical coal, and iron ore to China at enormous scale. Those trade relationships are not threatened by China’s renewable additions. They are supported by the simultaneous coal expansion. The critical minerals narrative that frames Australia’s future resource relationship with China as a transition away from bulk commodities is not yet supported by the actual energy policy data.
The structural read is that China will be a major coal market for longer than Western energy transition frameworks project, a major renewable market simultaneously, and the largest consumer of the minerals that go into both systems. Producer nations have leverage in that configuration only if they hold the processing step as well as the resource, which is the lesson of the Indonesia nickel export ban. The commodity investor who understands that both stories are real and simultaneous is better positioned than the one who treats them as mutually exclusive.
Key Takeaways
- China produced 4.78 billion tonnes of coal in 2024, 51.7% of global production, more than every other country combined. Six countries account for 87% of global supply. Asia-Pacific alone represents 80.3%. China is consuming approximately 40% more coal than the rest of the world combined.
- Beijing started 94.5 GW of new coal power capacity under construction in 2024, the highest level since 2015. Coal plant retirements fell to just 2.5 GW. The Chinese coal fleet approaches 1,200 GW. America’s entire coal fleet is approximately 175 GW. Global coal demand hit a new record in 2024.
- China added 340 TWh of solar and 140 TWh of wind in 2025 and is also building coal at record pace. This is energy addition, not energy transition. Coal is not being replaced. Every new renewable installation sits on top of a coal baseload that keeps growing.
FAQ
How much coal does China produce and what share of global output is that?
China produced 4.78 billion tonnes of coal in 2024, accounting for 51.7% of global coal production of 9.24 billion tonnes, according to the Statistical Review of World Energy 2025. This is more than every other country on earth combined. India was the second-largest producer at approximately 1.09 billion tonnes, followed by Indonesia at 836 million, the United States and Australia each at roughly 465 million, and Russia at 427 million. Six countries together account for 87% of global coal supply, with the Asia-Pacific region alone representing 80.3%.
How much new coal power capacity is China building in 2024 and 2025?
China started 94.5 gigawatts of new coal power capacity under construction in 2024, the highest level since 2015, according to Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. This followed an unprecedented permitting boom in 2022 and 2023 in which China approved more than 200 GW of new coal capacity. China commissioned 30.5 GW of coal power in 2024, representing 70% of the global total. Coal plant retirements in China fell to just 2.5 GW. The Chinese coal fleet now approaches 1,200 GW.
How can China expand both renewable energy and coal simultaneously?
China’s energy system is experiencing total electricity demand growth driven by AI infrastructure, data centres, industrial electrification, and rising living standards. Renewable energy additions are meeting part of that new demand growth while coal additions are meeting another part. In 2024, despite double-digit growth in wind and solar generation, the share of thermal power plants in China’s energy mix rose from 35% to 37%. Both demand streams are real. China is running an energy addition strategy, not an energy substitution strategy. Every new solar farm and wind installation sits on top of a coal baseload that keeps growing.
What does China’s coal buildout mean for Australia’s resource exports?
China’s continued and expanding coal power buildout supports sustained demand for Australian thermal coal and metallurgical coal, as well as steel feedstocks including iron ore. Australia exports approximately USD 22 billion of gold and USD 107 billion of iron ore, alongside significant coal, to regional customers with China as the dominant buyer. The critical minerals transition narrative that frames Australia’s future resource exports as moving away from bulk commodities toward critical minerals does not account for China’s simultaneous renewable and coal expansion, which maintains demand for both categories of Australian resource exports.
This analysis is from The Drill Down, a daily briefing on critical minerals, junior mining, and capital markets. Join 3,200+ investors and operators who read it before the market opens.
Sources
Statistical Review of World Energy 2025; Visual Capitalist May 2025; Global Energy Monitor, “Boom and Bust Coal 2025”; Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, February 2025; Carbon Brief February 2025; Ember 2026 via Our World in Data.
Kamoa Capital is not licensed and does not know your circumstances. Nothing here is financial, legal or tax advice – seek professional advice and read any PDS before acting. We aim for accuracy but make no guarantees and accept no liability. Views are opinions only and may include forward-looking statements that may not occur.
