Coal
Coal's Last Stand
Coal supply investment hits $180bn in 2026, the highest since 2012, up 4% on last year
China and India are writing most of the checks, but the checks are real and they’re growing
Coking coal has its own steel-driven bid that has nothing to do with anyone’s energy security panic
Everyone declared coal dead around 2015. Coal didn’t get the memo
Coal has been the fossil fuel equivalent of the guy nobody invites to the party but who somehow shows up anyway with better wine than everyone else. Every energy transition slide deck since 2015 has had the same chart: coal in terminal decline, the dirty fuel on its way out, replaced by cleaner everything. Meanwhile, in 2026, more money is going into digging coal out of the ground than in any year since 2012. Someone forgot to tell the money.
The Number Nobody’s Talking About
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