China's factories are quietly weaning off coal, new analysis finds
New Ember analysis finds clean electricity met all of China's growth in power demand in 2025, and coal generation fell for the first time in a decade.
The country that built its industrial rise on coal is starting to unbuild that dependence, slowly, and unevenly, but measurably.
New analysis from energy think-tank Ember, reported by Climate Home News, finds that clean electricity met all of China's growth in power demand in 2025, and coal-fired generation fell for the first time in a decade, even as overall electricity demand rose 5%. Coal power has stopped growing entirely in 17 of the 26 Chinese provinces and regions Ember studied between 2021 and 2025, including major industrial centers like Hunan and cement-heavy Shandong, which together hold more than half the country's thermal power capacity.
China now runs a larger share of its economy on electricity than other major economies, 29% of final energy consumption in 2024, versus about 23% in Europe and 21% in the US, and coal supplied less than half the country's electricity in the first half of this year.
"The energy foundation of the Chinese industrial economy is shifting," Ember's lead analyst Muyi Yang told Climate Home News. "Fossil fuels are progressively being replaced in the many functions they have historically assumed. Because of that, fossil fuel peaking is increasingly coming into view." The caveat: coal power actually rebounded in the first half of 2026, a reminder that the shift is a longer-term trend, not a straight line down.
Reporting by Chloé Farand for Climate Home News. Translated and adapted with attribution. Original: https://www.climatechangenews.com/2026/09/08/chinas-industrial-engine-starts-to-break-its-fossil-fuel-habit/
This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by an editor before publication.
