Despite record high natural gas prices and a worldwide energy crisis, global coal-powered generation fell in the year’s first half, defying forecasts of high coal consumption in the electricity sector. As a result, emissions also dropped in the first half of 2022, despite a rise in overall power demand and Europe resorting to coal-fired power capacity amid surging natural gas prices and reduced imports of pipeline gas from Russia. These trends, analyzed in a report by S&P Global Commodity Insights cited by The Wall Street Journal , showed how important China is to the global energy markets and how the market works – demand falls when prices triple. Coal prices hit a record high earlier this year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the announcement from the EU that it would stop importing Russian coal from August. However, the biggest factor in lower coal-fired power generation so far […]