A new report by the International Energy Agency gives a promising scenario on the fight against coal – the world’s largest energy investor, China, has dramatically slowed down pumping money into coal and commissioning new coal plants dropped by 25% last year.
The report analysed energy investments from different regions in the world as well as other parameters, also showed that India placed 4th in the world’s biggest energy investors. Fast growing economies in Southeast Asia represent 4% of global energy investment.
Another report released last March by Greenpeace, The Sierra Club, and CoalSwarm highlighted that China, together with India accounted for about 86% of coal power used worldwide from 2006 to 2016. Researchers from the Boom and Bust said that the latest decrease in coal investments from China. The country is now shifting towards solar and wind power generation which caused significant impacts to global coal power generation.
This also puts a spotlight on Southeast Asia, where energy is playing a critical role in the region’s energy-hungry economic growth.