We’re at the end of what’s likely to be the hottest month on record, and it’s been fueled by climate change. Yet countries are still burning a lot of coal. So much so that a new report from the International Energy Agency shows global demand for coal reached a record level in 2022 — and it’s not likely to go down any time soon. 

India and China continue to use more coal, unlike the United States. Countries like India and China rely on coal for two big reasons, said Sanya Carley, a professor of energy policy at the University of Pennsylvania: It’s usually cheap and available.

“And so as these countries industrialize and develop, coal is typically one of the first choice energy options that are pursued,” Carley said.

Wind and solar energy is getting less expensive, but renewables aren’t enough to meet China’s demand, said Seth Feaster, an analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

“Despite being a world leader in the amount of wind and solar capacity that they’re installing, coal is still rising, they haven’t reached a tipping point yet,” Feaster said.

Unlike in the U.S., where coal use continues to fall. That’s in part because unlike China, our overall energy demand has been pretty stagnant, Feaster said.

“And so what that’s meant over the last 15 years or so, is that all the new power generated by wind and solar is replacing something else,” he said.

Namely, coal.

Globally, the International Energy Agency predicts coal demand will remain flat this year and next. But that’s a big problem, said Daniel Cohan, an associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University.

“Any year that we don’t see coal use decline dramatically is another year that we’re falling behind the pace of, of what needs to happen for climate goals,” Cohan said.

Maybe, he said, all the extreme weather we’ve seen this summer might push countries to act faster to find alternatives.