China produces more coal than the rest of the world combined. See which countries dominated global coal production in 2024.
  • China accounts for over half of global coal production.
  • Just six countries produce nearly 90% of the world’s coal.
  • Asia dominates both total output and recent production growth.

China produces more coal than all nations combined.

According to the 2025 Statistical Review of World Energy, China produced 4.78 billion tonnes of coal in 2024, accounting for 51.7% of the global total.

Coal production is also highly concentrated beyond China. The top six producing countries, including India, Indonesia, and the U.S., together account for 87% of total supply.

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India ranks second at just over 1 billion tonnes, but its 11.7% share is far behind China’s majority.

The top six is rounded out by Indonesia (9.0%), the United States (5.0%), Australia (5.0%), and Russia (4.6%), after which production drops off sharply.

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    • Sepia@mander.xyzOP
      1·
      2 days ago

      Yeah, but 2026 is all different: China boosted its coal and gas power generation by 3.1% in April from a year earlier.

      China has been for decades among the worst polluters with highest carbon emissions, and this will remain so for a long time. According to the Chinese Communist Party’s recently released 15th five-year plan:

      • China’s goals for non-fossil energy additions would see China’s annual green energy additions fall by more than half compared to the 14th five-year plan
      • At the same time, fossil fuel energy consumption would increase by 8-10%, reversing the slow-down in fossil fuel energy consumption during the 14th FYP period.
  • RachelRodent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    138·
    5 days ago

    Yeah no shit, they host a whole lot of people too. They are not any less guilty compared to other capitalist hell holes but they aren’t guiltier cause “China bad”

    • sparkyshocks@lemmy.zip
      131·
      5 days ago

      they host a whole lot of people too.

      If a country that has 17% of the world’s people produces more than 50% of the world’s coal, the population size isn’t a defense.

      • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
        81·
        5 days ago

        I’ll agree it’s not. However (and I’m normally a critic of China when applicable) they produce all the bullshit we all buy so they have a ridiculous energy demand. 31% of the world’s electricity is consumed in China, but AFAIK coal is also used in production of steel and other metals.

        This is equivalent to that statement that goes around saying that 100 companies produce 70% of the world’s CO2. Yes, it’s true, but they don’t drill oil or burn coal for the lulz, it’s all to satisfy some consumer demand down the line. In the big picture, we all share some of the blame, though obviously us individuals can only control our individual consumption whereas China can control how much power they get from which source.

        • Sepia@mander.xyzOP
          1·
          4 days ago

          @boonhet@sopuli.xyz

          … 31% of the world’s electricity is consumed in China, but AFAIK coal is also used in production of steel and other metals … Yes, it’s true, but they don’t drill oil or burn coal for the lulz, it’s all to satisfy some consumer demand down the line …

          I wrote this in the last few days in other threads: It does NOT satisfy consumer demands.

          China produces massive overcapacity in almost all industries. For example, it produces more steel that can be absorbed by global markets, and the same is true for solar panels and many other products. The resulting price wars have been leading to bankruptcies (more than 400 EV makers filed for insolvency or halted production since the late 2010s, for example) and a deflationary period since 2023.

          The Chinese government wants to export this model to the world for geopolitical reasons, not to ‘satisfy demand’. The government in Beijing doesn’t care about demand or the people who are about to suffer most from this in the long run.

          Addition:

          China heavily depends on foreign exports markets to sell this overcapacity, as one analysis says,

          Overproduction generates a negative externality by depressing the aggregate purchasing power of the nation, and by driving down export prices, it erodes China’s terms of trade. It is a situation which economist Jagdish Bhagwati termed as ‘immiserizing growth’ … Industrial policy [in China] is entangled with geopolitical rivalry, locking Beijing into a ‘chicken game’ of capacity expansion even when it undermines national welfare.

          The Chinese Communist Party does not necessarily aim at undermining national welfare, but it at least deliberately accepts it, and it aims to export the same model to as many countries as possible.

          • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
            21·
            4 days ago

            I don’t disagree about them dumping low cost goods on everyone else to drive competitors out of business and in fact I’ve argued before that they’re doing that with their EV subsidies, however…

            Look at everything you own. What percentage of it is made in China, or made out of components or materials from China? All of that is part of Chinese energy/CO2. In the west we can claim we’re moving towards emitting less CO2, sure… But a large part of it comes from having outsourced most of our manufacturing to China and other low-cost countries (China being the cheap place for high-tech stuff, some other Asian countries being the cheap place for low-tech stuff since they have even cheaper labor than China, whereas China has amassed expertise in building things like consumer electronics).

            Personally I think my car’s just about the only product I own that’s not made in China or made of majority Chinese-manufactured components and that’s just because it’s about two decades old and the Germans were still doing a lot of things in Germany at that point. The same OE suppliers (ZF, Bosch, etc) have now moved a lot of their production to China too, so now in 2026 even if you buy a German car manufactured in Germany, it’ll have more Chinese parts on it than it would have had a few decades ago. Okay, sure, the CPU and GPU of my PC and the SoC on my phone are not from China, but they’re from TSMC, so that’s still something we enjoy here in Europe en masse without the energy cost affecting our numbers. I also checked and my mouse and keyboard both hail from China.

            My point isn’t that China is innocent in all this, but that we aren’t exactly being fair when looking at these numbers most of the time.

            Also if they’re flooding the world with cheap solar panels, by all means, go for it. They’re still pretty costly where I come from, so clearly there’s room to go even lower with the price.

    • Sepia@mander.xyzOP
      173·
      5 days ago

      This is not about the people. Key coal-based industries remain central to China’s economy, including coal-to-chemicals, and coal-based hydrogen among others. Among these industries are steel, cement, concrete, of which China produces massive overcapacity no one needs. It is also noteworthy that these ‘new’ coal-based hydrogens are often framed as green transition strategies (e.g., as ‘green steel’), but in reality that’s often just rebrand of carbon-emitting energy sources rather than true transformation.

      According to the Chinese Communist Party’s recently released 15th five-year plan: compared to the 14th five-year plan, China’s goals for non-fossil energy additions would see China’s annual green energy additions fall by more than half in the next five years, while at the same time, fossil fuel energy consumption would increase by 8-10%.

      So this is not about ‘China bad’ but rather an objective fact: China is not on track to meet its 2060 carbon neutrality goal, according to climate think tank, Carbon Action Tracker.

    • Jax@sh.itjust.works
      46·
      5 days ago

      China will not save you from the climate crisis. China has been the engine driving it for decades.