The IEA's September 2026 Coal Mid-Year Update forecasts global coal demand will rise 1.2% to a record 8.94 billion tonnes in 2026, reversing an earlier plateau…
The IEA's Coal Mid-Year Update reversed its earlier plateau forecast, projecting demand up 1.2% for the year to 8.94 billion tonnes - a record - while coal production is…
Fighting linked to the US-Iran conflict cut LNG shipments through Hormuz; Brent crude closed near $101/barrel on 9 September 2026. Higher gas prices made coal cheaper by…
A deadly mine explosion in Shanxi prompted emergency safety inspections; over 100 mines with combined capacity above 100 million tonnes were temporarily shut, cutting ex…
Coal-fired generation dropped 1.9% even as electricity demand rose about 5%, because wind, solar, nuclear and hydro absorbed the new demand - proof clean growth can disp…
Cuts to Russian pipeline gas sent European prices soaring; several countries temporarily extended coal-plant life to preserve gas for winter heating - the same fuel-swit…
Nearly every country adopted national emissions-reduction commitments, intensifying debate over coal phase-down - but implementation speed has varied hugely by country e…
China's 2001 WTO entry and rapid industrialisation, followed by India's growth, shifted the world's coal centre of gravity away from Europe and North America toward Asia…
Thomas Edison's coal-fired Pearl Street Station opened in 1882, one of the first central power plants, beginning coal's shift from driving on-site machinery to fuelling…
Watt did not invent the steam engine - Thomas Newcomen's design predates his by over 50 years. Watt's separate-condenser patent made it efficient enough to drive factori…
Coal had been used for centuries before, but the 1760s marks when industrial-scale extraction and use began accelerating sharply in Britain - the foundation of the moder…
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