China leads global planned coal power decline

The amount of coal-fired power generation under development worldwide has shrunk by 14% this year, Reuters reports, driven down by China as it struggles with oversupply and tries to promote cleaner energy. India also introduced policies in the first half of 2016 curbing plans for coal-fired plants, partly due to under-utilization of existing plants, according to a Global Coal Plant Tracker run by non-government and anti-coal group CoalSwarm. Overall, the amount of coal-fired generating capacity in pre-construction planning fell to an estimated 932 gigawatts (GW) in July from 1,090 GW at the start of the year. The decline was almost equal to the coal generating capacity of the European Union. China had the biggest drop in its pre-construction pipeline, of 114 GW to a total 406 GW proposed.