China and India both showed a simultaneous decline in coal-fired power production last year for the first time in decades, as the two countries also added record clean energy capacity.

Given that power generation in the two countries collectively accounted for more than 90% of the global increase in carbon dioxide emissions from all sources between 2015-2024, initiating a decline in their power sector emissions is “the key to peaking global emissions,” writes Carbon Brief. But sustaining the reduction will require increasing support to expand clean energy and shift away from fossil fuels.

The last time both countries burned less coal in the same year was in 1973, when energy systems were disrupted by a global oil crisis. For last year, recent data shows that non-fossil energy sources increased enough to cover a rise in electricity consumption in both India and China in 2025, allowing coal-fired power generation to fall 1.6% in China and 3.0% in India.

Both countries have been ambitiously expanding their wind and solar energy production, with India’s renewable capacity additions increasing 44% compared to the year before—including 35 gigawatts of solar capacity and 6 GW of wind—while China’s 300 GW of new solar and 100 GW of wind exceeded additions in any other country. Hydropower, which had supplied less electricity in 2024 due to low reservoir levels, bounced back to also help displace coal.

The coal decline in India was aided by slower-than-normal growth in electricity consumption—in part linked to milder weather that lessened air conditioning power needs—while China reduced its coal use even as electricity use rose by 5%. Economic growth in both countries continued to increase during this time.

Carbon Brief listed a series of factor behind the coal decline in India, with clean energy growth accounting for 44% of the reduction in coal and gas, 36% linked to milder weather, and 20% connected to slower underlying demand growth. It was  the first time clean energy additions played “a significant role” in reducing India’s coal emissions, the analysis found.

In a recent announcement, India’s minister of commerce and industry, Piyush Goyal, said the country is on track to meet its goal of adding 500 GW of solar capacity by 2030, reports the Economic Times’ Energyworld.

Though Carbon Brief marks the simultaneous drop of China’s and India’s coal use as a “historic moment,” the UK-based news outlet warns there are many challenges to overcome before the trend can be considered locked in for future years.

For instance, while the rise in clean power supply in India outpaced the increase in electricity demand in 2025, demand growth was slower than the average from 2019 to 2024, signalling that the country will have to add more clean energy in more normal years to have the same impact. And to achieve a structural decline in coal, clean energy growth would have to continue accelerating.

Asia Financial writes also points to remaining obstacles to rapidly adding more clean energy, including delayed transmission line construction, difficulties integrating clean power surpluses into the grid, and long-term contracts still being signed with coal plants.

Both countries have also continued to approve new coal plant construction, and India says it expects to increase coal capacity by 46% by 2030, says POWER, though Offshore Engineer reports that the national government has no plans to increase coal-fired generation beyond 2035.

A new analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air says the demand for electricity driven by cooling during extreme heat events “masks a structural slowdown in India’s electricity growth” that is behind the continued expansion of coal capacity.

According to Carbon Brief, completion of all coal plants that are currently under construction or permitted would increase coal-fired capacity by 28% in China and 23% in India.