Javier Blas, energy and commodities columnist at Bloomberg, posted the following chart on X (Twitter) showing how the International Energy Agency (IEA) has consistently underestimated global coal demand, which is running around 1 billion tonnes higher (~9%) than the agency had expected only five years ago:
“The forecasting error equals to the anual demand of the EU, Japan and the US — combined”, Blas noted.
The 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy, considered the gold standard for tracking what powers the world, was released in July and revealed that global coal consumption hit a record high after growing by 0.7% in 2025.
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