NEW YORK • The pandemic abruptly slowed the global march of coal. But demand for the world's dirtiest fuel is forecast to soar this year, gravely undermining the chances of staving off the worst effects of global warming.

Burning coal is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions, and, after a pandemic-year retreat, demand for coal is set to rise by 4.5 per cent this year, mainly to meet soaring electricity demand, according to data published on Tuesday by the International Energy Agency, just two days before a White House-hosted virtual summit aimed at rallying global climate action.

"This is a dire warning that the economic recovery from the Covid crisis is currently anything but sustainable for our climate," agency head Fatih Birol said in a statement.

Coal is at the crux of critical political decisions that government leaders need to make this year if they are to transition to a green economy. Scientists say greenhouse gas emissions need to be halved by 2030 in order for the world to have a fighting chance at limiting dangerous levels of warming. In short, this is a historic juncture for coal.

For 150 years, more and more of its sooty deposits have been extracted from under the ground, first to power the economies of Europe and North America, then Asia and Africa.

Today, coal is still the largest source of electricity, although its share is steadily shrinking as other sources of power come online, from nuclear to wind.

Global spending on coal projects dropped to its lowest level in a decade in 2019. And, over the past 20 years, more coal-fired power plants have been retired or shelved than commissioned.

The big hold-outs are China, India and parts of South-east Asia, but, even there, coal's once-swift growth is nowhere as swift as it was just a few years ago, according to a recent analysis.

In some countries where new coal-fired power plants were only recently being built by the gigawatts, plans for new ones have been shelved, as in South Africa, reconsidered, as in Bangladesh, or facing funding troubles, as in Vietnam.

In some countries, including India, existing coal plants are running way below capacity and losing money. In others, including the United States, they are being decommissioned faster than ever.

Nonetheless, demand is still strong.

"Coal is not dead," said Melissa Lott, research director for the Centre for Global Energy Research at Columbia University. "We have made a lot of progress, but we have not made that curve."

Since the start of the industrial era, coal has been the main fuel to light up homes, power factories and, in some places, to cook and heat rooms, too.

For more than a century, Europe and the US consumed most of the world's coal. Today, China and India account for two-thirds of coal consumption.

Other energy sources have joined the mix as electricity demand has soared: nuclear, wind and, most recently, hydrogen.

Coal made room for new entrants but refused to retreat.

Today, several forces are rising against coal. People are clamouring against deadly levels of air pollution, caused by its combustion. Wind and solar energy, once far costlier than coal, are becoming competitive, while some countries are facing a glut of coal-fired plants already built.

In at least three countries, Chinese-funded projects are in trouble or dead.

In Kenya, a proposed coal plant has languished for years because of litigation. In Egypt, a planned coal plant is indefinitely postponed. In Bangladesh, Chinese-backed projects are among 15 planned coal plants that the government in Dhaka is reviewing, with an eye to cancelling them altogether.

"Broadly speaking, there's growing opposition against coal and a lot more scrutiny right now," said Ms Daine Loh, a South-east Asia power sector energy specialist at Fitch Solutions, an industry analysis firm. "It's a trend - moving away from coal. It's very gradual."

Money is part of the problem. Development banks are shying away from coal.

Japan and South Korea, two major financiers of coal, have tightened restrictions on new coal projects. Japan is still building coal plants at home, rare among industrialised countries.

There are some big exceptions. Indonesia and Australia continue to mine their abundant coal deposits.

Perhaps most oddly, Britain, which is hosting the next international climate talks, is opening a new coal mine.

And then there are the world's biggest coal consumers, China and India.

Coal's future in China is at the centre of a robust debate in the country, with prominent policy advisers pressing for a near-moratorium on new coal plants and state-owned companies insisting that China needs to burn more coal for years to come.

India's coal fleet is growing as well, bankrolled by state-owned lenders. There is not much of a signal from the government that it wants to reduce its reliance on coal, even as it seeks to expand solar energy.

NYTIMES