Beyond Coal? India, Indonesia, and Vietnam Didn’t Get the Memo

In 2019, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that his charitable organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies, would give $500 million to the Beyond Carbon campaign, an effort designed to “finish the job” of transitioning the US “from coal and other fossil fuels to 100% clean power.”

In 2021, Bloomberg’s charity launched a campaign “to close a quarter of the world’s 2,445 remaining coal plants and all 519 proposed coal plants by 2025.” Bloomberg said his group would achieve that goal by expanding its efforts from the US and Europe to “25 developing countries where coal power is projected to rapidly grow.”

In 2023, Bloomberg was at it again. He announced that he was donating an additional $500 million to the Beyond Carbon campaign, which Earthjustice said was “one of the largest philanthropic efforts to fight the climate crisis in the US.” In a press release, the group said that by 2030, it aims to “shut down every last US coal plant.”

Yes, well. Bloomberg may be lavishing a cool $1 billion on his activist pals at Earthjustice, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, and other groups, but a bunch of Asian countries didn’t get the memo about quitting coal.

I recently returned from a trip to three of the world’s fastest-growing countries: Vietnam, Singapore, and Malaysia. It was my first trip to Southeast Asia, and it was a remarkable experience. Saigon is a boom town. Construction cranes were visible throughout the city and all along the Saigon River. In Singapore, new buildings were going up all around the Marina district. From the top floor at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur, I counted more than 30 construction cranes. All three cities were clean and safe, the people were friendly, and the vibe was optimistic. There’s reason for the optimism. The major economies in Asia are booming, foreign capital is flowing in, and incomes are rising.

What’s fueling Asia’s economic boom? Coal-fired power plants.

I may be spoiling my own punchline, but here it is: The US isn’t really using less coal. Instead, it has exported its coal use to Asian countries. These seven charts tell the story.