(Reuters) – Global demand for coal is expected to jump 2.6% next year after a pandemic-led fall this year, as economic activity restores consumption for electricity and industrial production, the Group said. Energy International (IEA) Friday.
Demand for thermal and metallurgical coal should rise to 7,432 million tonnes in 2021, from 7,243 million tonnes this year, the Paris-based group said in its report on Coal 2020.
Global coal demand fell 5% this year as a result of declining pandemic consumption, the EMI said.
Between 2018 and 2020, global coal demand will have fallen by an unprecedented 7%, or 500 million tonnes, the group said, due to the pandemic and how countries around the world are try to move to cleaner energy sources.
“Prior to the pandemic, we expected a small reduction in coal demand in 2020, but since then we have seen the largest reduction in coal consumption since World War II,” said the EMI’s director of energy and security markets, Keisuke. Sadamori, in a statement.
While even the United States and Europe would see their first increase in coal consumption in nearly a decade next year, demand in 2021 would still follow 2019 levels and the IEA expected flat coal consumption would be out by 2025 at around 7.4 billion tonnes.
Renewable energy is likely to overtake coal as the world’s largest source of electricity by 2025, while natural gas would replace coal as the second largest source of energy after oil. , said Sadamori.
“But with coal demand expected to remain stable or growth in key Asian economies, there is no sign that coal is going to escape quickly,” he said, with key Asian markets accounting for 75 % of global coal demand.
Coal is a major driver of CO2 emissions and governments around the world have pledged carbon neutrality in the coming decades, including China, which has set the target for by 2060.
The IEA said it needed to review the 2025 coal demand forecast, once the Chinese government unveils its economic plans for 2021-2025, due in March.
Reporting with Nora Buli in Oslo; Edited by Susan Fenton