China’s coal consumption rose for a second year in a row in 2018, but coal’s share of total energy consumption fell below 60 percent for the first time as cleaner energy sources gained ground, official data showed on Thursday. The world’s biggest coal consumer used 1 percent more coal in absolute terms last year than in 2017, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said in an annual communique. Coal consumption had risen for the first time in four years in 2017. However, coal accounted for only 59 percent of China’s overall energy consumption last year, down 1.4 percentage points from 2017, while gas, nuclear power and renewable energy combined accounted for 22.1 percent, up 1.3 percentage points. That brings the world’s biggest emitter of […]