Coal

Fuel

Coal is considered to be the worst of all fossil fuels.

For the same amount of energy, it emits:

• more CO₂
• other pollutants in its toxic smoke
  • some of which could be mitigated, but not the CO₂

Coal is commonly used for:

• generating electricity - (see stats)From Key World Energy Statistics 2020 (IEA report):
  
  • 38.2% of the world's electricity is generated by coal.
  
  • 27.5% of the USA's electricity is generated from coal.
  
  • 26.9% of the world's total energy supply(...)( all energy sources, including fuels regardless of whether they're used for electricity or not ) is from coal.
• generating heat needed in some forms of manufacturing

Non-fuel uses

Coal is used in making asphalt for paving roads. It's also used for making hundreds of different chemicals - including ones that are harmless and essential to modern society. ^{[EXAMPLE needed]}

Non-fuel usage is a tiny fraction of coal consumption. ^{[QUANTIFICATION needed]} It does not contribute to climate change(...)( with some rare exceptions, probably - there could be cases where greenhouse gases are involved in some other way - but this doesn't add up to anywhere near the climate effects of burning coal as fuel ), because the coal isn't burned - no CO₂ released.

Mining

Mining for coal can also involve major ecological destruction, such as mountain top removal.

See also

• Oil
• Natural gas
• Energy supply