China’s coal output hits record in 2025 even as it burns less

China’s coal production reached a record last year, even as the country’s power plants burned less of the fossil fuel due to a flood of cleaner electricity, with Beijing continuing to prioritize energy security.

Coal output rose to 4.83 billion tons in 2025, according to government figures released on Monday, up 1.2% from the previous year despite a spate of safety inspections that curbed production in the second half. Thermal power generation fell 1%, the first decline on an annual basis in a decade.

The diverging trends underscore competing interests as China tries to develop a cleaner and more efficient power system without putting its energy security at risk. Natural gas output hit a new high for the 33rd straight year, while crude oil production eclipsed a record that had stood since 2015.

Those fuels pale in comparison to coal’s importance to China. The Asian nation mines and consumes more than half of the world’s supply of the most-polluting fossil fuel, which makes up over 50% of the country’s energy.

Its importance was driven home in 2021, when a shortage led to rolling blackouts at factories nationwide. The government responded by pushing energy firms to open more mines and boost output, while simultaneously doubling down on clean energy sectors, where it was already a world leader.

All that new wind and solar power was able to meet rapidly rising power demand last year, leading to a drop in output at coal plants that remain the backbone of the electricity system. The combination of rising mine output and decreased power use helped build coal stockpiles and led to spot prices declining to a four-year low last summer.

Where these trends go from here remains unclear. Coal output fell on an annual basis for several months in the second-half of the year after the government started a round of safety investigations. Still, officials will want to ensure supplies remain plentiful.

Meanwhile, China will need to keep up its world-leading pace of renewables deployment to meet growing power demand without the need for coal plants to burn more fuel. Being able to do that will require massive investments in the power grid to accommodate more intermittent sources.

Read More: China confronts the cost of dismantling the world’s biggest coal sector