A Monday report from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) found China burned record levels of coal in early 2025, adding about 21 gigawatts of power in six months.
The Finland-based group said the surge undermines China’s heavy investment in renewables, with their report stating: “Although there were some signs of coal power slowing down in 2024 and 2025 has seen China’s clean energy boom meet a significant amount of power demand growth and lower CO2 emissions, coal power remains strong, with new and revived projects the highest in a decade.”
Critics argue that China’s renewable energy push is a cover for its continued heavy reliance on fossil fuels and a strategy to boost sales of its solar, wind, and battery products abroad, with potentially ulterior motives. Recently, for example, foreign buyers of Chinese solar panels have reported finding hidden surveillance equipment.
In a statement of hopeful yet naive optimism, CREA suggested that China’s rush to build even more coal-fired power plants is merely a bid to “expand coal projects as a last ditch effort before China’s 2030 carbon peaking deadline, right when strategic phase-down should be the priority to meet climate goals and as clean energy is meeting all of new power demand growth.”
“In June 2025, coal’s share in power generation dropped to a nine-year low of 51%, and only made up 34% of China’s total installed capacity, while renewables accounted for 60%, pointing to the ongoing trend of coal losing steam while an artificial push attempts to expand rather than phase down its historic role,” the report said.
CREA noted that China has yet to act on its 2022 pledge to relegate coal to a secondary role, with no sign that it will abandon its costly new plants within the next five years. Coal utilization hit a decade high in early 2025, and China commissioned more new capacity than any year since 2015, driven by over 100 gigawatts approved in 2022–23.
Report co-author Christine Shearer told Deutsche Welle (DW) that China’s coal expansion also “shows no sign of easing,” locking in high emissions for years. Xi Jinping pledged in 2021 to cut 30 gigawatts of coal by 2025, but only one gigawatt has been retired so far.
Shearer further noted that global coal use is declining, while China and India accounted for 87% of new coal power in early 2025. She criticized Trump for lacking “clean-energy leadership” but acknowledged that the U.S. is set to retire more coal this year than it did under Biden in 2024. Europe, meanwhile, has stopped approving new coal plants since 2018; however, major economies still lag behind the Paris Accords phaseout goals and rely heavily on natural gas.
