This story originally appeared on Climate Central.
Technological progress has been brutal to the yellow pages and compact discs. Coal may be headed the same way in the U.S., partly because of the market and partly because of national climate change policy.
Coal-fired power plants are the nation’s largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions and driver of climate change, and an old technology slowly being replaced by newer, cleaner sources of energy. With solar, wind and natural gas gaining ground on the electric grid, change is in the air.
A coal-fired power plant in Wisconsin. Coal demand increased slightly in the U.S. in 2013 and 2014 becuase of higher natural gas prices. Demand is expected to drop in the coming years, however.
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China is the center of global coal consumption, production and imports, representing more than half of global coal demand in 2013, according to the agency’s report.
Van der Hoeven called for increased use of carbon capture and sequestration technology and construction of more efficient coal-fired power plants.
“New plants are being built in an arc running from South Africa to Southeast Asia, but too many of these are based on decades-old technology,” she said. “Regrettably, they will be burning coal inefficiently for many years to come.”
