China accounted for two-thirds of new global coal plant capacity in 2023, report finds
Chinese flag on a background of coal.
Andrzej Rostek | Istock | Getty Images
The world added more coal power capacity last year than any year since 2016, with China driving most growth and future planned capacity, according to new research.
A report by Global Energy Monitor released Thursday found that net annual coal capacity grew by 48.4 GW, representing a 2% year-over-year increase. China alone accounted for about two-thirds of new coal plant capacity.
Other countries that brought new coal plants online included Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Japan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Korea, Greece and Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, other countries such as the U.S. and U.K., slowed their rate of plant closures, with only about 22.1 GW retired last year — the smallest amount since 2011.
The authors of the GEM report recommended countries commit to shutting down coal plants at a faster pace, and for nations like China to adopt stricter controls on the development and usage of new plants.
“Otherwise we can forget about meeting our goals in the Paris agreement and reaping the benefits that a swift transition to clean energy will bring,” said Flora Champenois, a Global Energy Monitor analyst.
The Paris Climate agreement, signed by most global governments in 2015, set long-term goals for substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions, caused by fossil fuels like coal. Coal power capacity, however, continues to steadily grow.
China has separately set a goal of reaching net-zero by 2060. President Xi Jinping said in 2021 that China would “strictly control coal consumption” up to 2025 and “phase down coal consumption” thereafter.
Yet, according to data from GEM, China started construction on 70.2 GW of new coal-power capacity last year, nearly 20 times as much as the rest of the world’s 3.7 GW. The country also only retired about 3.7 GW of its coal capacity in 2023.
Despite this, GEM said that with “immediate and determined action,” China can still meet its climate targets, including a goal set by the National Energy Administration in 2022 to retire 30 GW of coal power by 2025.
While low retirement rates contributed to coal’s blockbuster 2023, they are expected to accelerate in the U.S. and Europe, according to the report. That could offset some of the new capacity in China.
“Coal’s fortunes this year are an anomaly, as all signs point to reversing course from this accelerated expansion,” said Champenois.
Green energy addition, not transition?
While China has been a major coal user, accounting for more than half of consumption since 2011, it also helped expand global renewable energy capacity.
According to a report from the IEA, global renewable capacity additions increased by almost 50% to nearly 510 GW in 2023, the fastest growth rate in two decades.
“While the increases in renewable capacity in Europe, the United States and Brazil hit all-time highs, China’s acceleration was extraordinary,” the report said.
China commissioned as much solar capacity as the entire world did in 2022, while wind additions also soared 66% year-on-year, the IEA said.
However, experts have argued that China’s rapid economic growth, combined with the unreliable and intermittent nature of renewable energy sources has kept coal as a critical fallback option for the manufacturing focused economy.
China also ranks among the top five countries in terms of global coal reserves, but not other, less pollutant options like oil and natural gas, according to Rob Thummel, managing director at energy value chain investment company Tortoise.
“In China, coal is the largest domestic energy resource, so China continues to tap it in order to maintain energy security,” Thummel added.
The IEA estimates that all global coal generation needs to cease by 2040 to limit temperature rises within the key threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
According to GEM, meeting this 2040 phase-out goal would require an average of 126 GW in coal plant capacity to be shutdown annually for the next 17 years — equivalent to about two coal plants per week.
The required cuts are even deeper when accounting for the 578 GW of coal capacity under construction and in pre-construction, it added. As per GEM’s data, global coal capacity retirements still have not ever outpaced additions.
The EU’s climate change monitoring service said on Tuesday that the world experienced its warmest March on record, marking the tenth month in a row of new temperature records.
The e-bike industry in the West has long been a tale of two territories. North Americans enjoy higher speeds and power limits for their electric bicycles while Europeans are held to much stricter (i.e. slower and lower) speed and power limits. However, things might change based on current discussions on rewriting European e-bike regulations.
New power levels are not totally without precedent, either. The UK briefly considered doubling its own e-bike power limit from 250 watts (approximately 1/3 horsepower) to 500 watts, though the move was ultimately abandoned.
But this time, the call for more power is coming from within the house – i.e., Germany. The Germans are the undisputed leaders and trend setters in the European e-bike market, accounting for around two million sales of e-bikes per year. Home to leading e-bike drive makers like Bosch, the country has yet another advantage when it comes to making – or regulating – waves in the industry.
And while there aren’t any pending law changes, the largest German trade organization ZIV (Zweirad-Industrie-Verband), which is highly influential in achieving such changes, is now discussing what it believes could be pertinent updates to current EU electric bike regulations.
Some of the new regulations involve creating rules maxing out power at levels such as 400% or 600% of the human pedaling input. But a key component of the proposed plan includes changing the present day power limit of e-bikes from 250W of continuous power at the motor to 750W of peak power at the drive wheel.
The difference includes some nuance, since continuous power is often considered more of a nominal figure, meaning nearly every e-bike motor in Europe wears a “250W” or less sticker despite often outputting a higher level of peak power. Even Bosch, which has to walk the tight and narrow as a leader in the European e-bike drive market, shared that its newest models of motors are capable of peak power ratings in the 600W level. That’s still far from the commonly 1,000W to 1,300W peak power seen in US e-bike motors, but offers a nice boost over an actual 250W motor.
Other new regulations up for discussion include proposals to limit fully-loaded cargo e-bike weights to either 250 kg (550 lb) for two-wheelers or 300 kg (660 lb) for e-bikes with more than two wheels. As road.cc explained, ZIV also noted that, “separate framework conditions and parameters must be defined for cargo bikes weighing more than 300 kg (see EN 17860-4:2025) as they differ significantly from EPACs and bicycles in their dynamics, design and operation.” Such heavy-duty cargo e-bikes, which often more closely resemble small delivery vans than large cargo bikes, are becoming more common in the industry and have raised concerns about cargo e-bike bloat, especially in dedicated cycling paths.
It’s too early to say whether European e-bike regulations will actually change, but the fact that key industry voices with the power to influence policy are openly advocating for it suggests that new rules for the European market are a real possibility.
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China just laid out a plan to roll out over 100,000 ultra-fast EV charging stations by 2027 – and they’ll all be open to the public.
The National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) joint notice, issued on Monday, asks local authorities to put together construction plans for highway service areas and prioritize the ones that see 40% or more usage during holiday travel rushes.
The NDRC notes that China’s ultra-fast EV charging infrastructure needs upgrading as more 800V EVs hit the road. Those high-voltage platforms can handle super-fast charging in as little as 10 to 30 minutes, but only if the charging hardware is up to speed.
China had 31.4 million EVs on the road at the end of 2024 – nearly 9% of the country’s total vehicle fleet. But charging access is still catching up. As of May 2025, there were 14.4 million charging points, or roughly 1 for every 2.2 EVs.
To keep the grid running smoothly, China wants new chargers to be smart, with dynamic pricing to incentivize off-peak charging and solar and storage to power the charging stations.
To make the business side work, the government is pushing for 10-year leases for charging station operators, and it’s backing the buildout with local government bonds.
The NDRC emphasized that the DC fast chargers built will be open to the public. This is a big deal because a lot of fast chargers in China aren’t. For example, BYD’s new megawatt chargers aren’t open to third-party vehicles.
As of September 2024, China had expanded its charging infrastructure to 11.4 million EV chargers, but only 3.3 million were public.
Read more: California now has nearly 50% more EV chargers than gas nozzles
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