A recent report by the climate research group Carbon Tracker grabbed headlines when it claimed that around 75 percent of current coal-fired capacity and 80 percent of planned new capacity is concentrated in just five countries: China, India, Vietnam, Japan, and Indonesia. This figure is jarring (although most of that is China and India), but it’s effective at drawing attention to Carbon Tracker’s larger point, which is that as a going economic concern the future of coal is dim, especially if government subsidies and other market-distorting mechanisms are ended.
