Southeast Asia to add around 100GW of coal-fired capacity by 2040

A whopping 40% of this will be in Indonesia.

Reuters reported that Southeast Asia and India are set to pick up the slack and drive global coal demand through 2040 as China cuts use of the fossil fuel to fight pollution, forecasts from the International Energy Agency and Wood Mackenzie show.

India and Southeast Asia will account for the bulk of increased coal use in the decades ahead as they rely on one of the cheapest sources of power to supply electricity, although pollution concerns have delayed some projects.

“Coal maintains a strong foothold in (Southeast Asia‘s) projected consumption, not only because it is markedly cheaper than natural gas, but also because coal projects are in many cases easier to pursue as they do not require the capital-intensive infrastructure associated with gas,” the International Energy Agency said this week in its outlook for Southeast Asia.

View the full report here.