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The way coal\u2019s next chapter unfolds is key to tackling climate change. All unabated coal\u00a0must close\u00a0within a few decades if warming is to be limited to less than 2C above pre-industrial temperatures, according to the\u00a0International Energy Agency<\/a>\u00a0(IEA).<\/p>\nTo shed light on this story, Carbon Brief has mapped the past, present and future of all the world\u2019s coal-fired power stations. The interactive timeline map, above, shows the plants operating in each year between 2000 and 2017, as well as the location of planned new capacity.<\/p>\n
Using data from\u00a0CoalSwarm\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0Global Coal Plant Tracker<\/a>, it features around 10,000 retired, operating and planned coal units, totalling nearly 3,000 gigawatts (GW) across 95 countries.<\/p>\n The timeline map above shows a circle for each coal plant in the world, proportional to the generating capacity in megawatts (MW). Each plant may be made up of multiple units \u2013 the individual boilers and steam turbines. The notes at the end of this article explain how the data was processed.<\/p>\n The graphic, below, explains how to use the map features. Select the year, region and base map \u2013 including a satellite view \u2013 using the information box on the left.<\/p>\n Zoom, rotate and tilt the map using the navigation tools in the top right corner and your mouse scroll wheel. Use the search box to find locations by city, region, postal or zip code. The home button will reset the map to its original state.<\/p>\n Coal plants on the map are colour-coded according to whether they are operating (yellow), new or expanded that year (red) and closing or shrinking the following year (white).<\/p>\n Drag the timeline slider from 2000 through to 2017 to see where and when coal plants are added and retired. For 2017, plants are coloured white if they are expected to close some or all of their units.<\/p>\n The rightmost end of the slider (\u201cFuture\u201d) shows plants that have no known plans to retire (yellow), those currently being built (pink) and those in various stages of planning (purple).<\/p>\n Note that since 2010, only 34% of planned capacity has been built or started construction (873GW), whereas 1,700GW has been cancelled or shelved, according to\u00a0CoalSwarm<\/a>. For example, a tender to build one new plant may attract several bids, all of which would be counted towards the \u201cplanned\u201d total.<\/p>\n The map shows coal capacity, whereas electricity generation and CO2 emissions depend on a range of other factors. Most important is how often coal plants run \u2013 their load factor. Global average loads started falling in 2007 and coal power CO2 peaked in 2014. More on this below.<\/p>\n Finally, note that the map design is responsive and has fewer features on smaller mobile devices. The map uses\u00a0WebGL<\/a>\u00a0and will not work on some older browsers. The map may also fail to load if you are using an ad-blocking browser plugin; try whitelisting the Carbon Brief website.<\/p>\n Global coal capacity grew in every year between 2000 and 2017, nearly doubling from 1,063GW to 1,995GW. As far back as 1950, coal capacity has only ever risen \u2013 though this older data is less reliable.<\/p>\n The\u00a0promise<\/a>\u00a0of cheap electricity to fuel economic growth is driving this expansion. Coal generates 40-41% of the world\u2019s electricity, its\u00a0highest share<\/a>\u00a0in decades. And there are now 77 countries using coal power, up from 65 in 2000. Another 13 plan to join the club.<\/p>\n CO2 emissions from existing plants are enough to\u00a0breach<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0carbon budget<\/a>\u00a0for 1.5 or 2C. These limits would mean no new coal plants and closing 20% of the fleet early, according to one\u00a0recent study<\/a>.<\/p>\n All unabated coal would have to\u00a0close by 2040<\/a>\u00a0to stay \u201cwell below\u201d 2C, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA<\/a>). This would mean closing 100GW of coal capacity\u00a0every year for 20 years<\/a>, or roughly\u00a0one coal unit every day<\/a>\u00a0until 2040. (Some\u00a0pathways<\/a>have slightly slower phaseouts.)<\/p>\n Yet\u00a0newspaper headlines<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0energy projections<\/a>\u00a0suggest coal growth\u00a0will not stop<\/a>.<\/p>\nHow to read the timeline map<\/h4>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nRising coal capacity<\/h4>\n