As many as seven OECD countries have completely phased out coal in their power industries: Belgium did so in 2016, Sweden and Austria in 2020, Portugal in 2021, Norway in 2023, and Slovakia and the United Kingdom in 2024. Israel, Ireland, Italy and Spain plan to decommission all their coal-fired TPPs in 2025, while France, Greece, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Hungary, Canada, Chile and New Zealand intend to do so by 2030, and the Czech Republic, Slovenia and the United States are going to achieve that by 2035. Finally, Germany plans to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2038, whereas Poland and South Korea aim for 2049 and 2050, respectively.
Australia and Turkey have not yet developed concrete plans to phase out coal, as the share of coal-fired power generation in the two countries by the end of 2023 totaled 46% and 37%, respectively, as well as 32% in Japan, 10% in Colombia and 8% in Mexico. For example, Japan is facing the consequences of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP, because of which 21 nuclear reactors in the country are still suspended, with only 12 power units regularly generating electricity (last year, they accounted for a mere 8% of Japan’s power generation). Due to the need to offset the decommissioned power capacities, Japan has been one of the few OECD countries in recent years to continue building coal-fired power plants: according to Global Energy Monitor, the country put into operation 13.5 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired TPPs between 2013 and 2023, i.e., almost a quarter of their current aggregate capacity (54.8 GW).
However, the key reason is the high availability, low cost (compared to other fuels) and ease of use of coal. This is why both producing countries (Australia, Colombia, Turkey) and importing countries (South Korea, Mexico) remain committed to coal. It is no coincidence that Türkiye and South Korea continue to commission new coal-fired generation facilities: by July 2024, coal-fired thermal power plants with a capacity of 1.2 GW were built in these countries.
