China Used More Coal Power Last Year in Blow to Climate Efforts

(Bloomberg) -- China’s fossil fuel power plants increased generation to a record last year, as the boom in clean energy failed to keep pace with surging electricity consumption in the world’s second-biggest economy.

Output from thermal plants, predominantly powered by coal, rose 1.5% in 2024 from the previous year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. The electricity sector is the largest contributor to China’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Production of fossil fuels also hit new highs, with coal and natural gas at record levels, and crude oil climbing to its second-highest total ever. 

The figures run contrary to hopes that China may have begun to reduce emissions last year, more than half a decade ahead of its 2030 target, after massive additions of wind and solar power and a rebound in output of hydropower. 

But all that extra clean energy wasn’t enough to cope with the expansion in electricity consumption, which was set to outpace overall economic growth for the fifth straight year in 2024 due to strong demand for computing, and as sectors from heating to transport electrify. 

The trajectory of electricity demand will be key to determining whether fossil fuel generation begins its decline in 2025. At the same time, China is maintaining its world-leading pace of renewables deployment, and is spending more on power lines and energy storage equipment to ensure the clean energy isn’t wasted.

It’s increasingly possible that renewable sources can meet all of the country’s new electricity consumption this year, and pave the way for China’s power sector to achieve peak emissions in 2025, said Gao Yuhe, a Beijing-based analyst at Greenpeace East Asia.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.