King Coal

King Coal

From Energy Switch by Switch Energy Alliance

February 17, 2026 · 25 min · Season 7 · Episode 10

About this episode

The episode discusses the dominance of coal as an electricity source and its environmental impacts with experts.

Coal is still the dominant source of electricity worldwide. That’s because it’s available domestically in many countries, and is cheap and easy to mine, transport and burn. But those benefits come with serious downsides: local air pollution and global CO2 emissions. We discuss with Dr. Rahul Tongia from the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, and Dr. Mark Thurber from Stanford University.

People in this episode

Guests: Dr. Rahul Tongia, Dr. Mark Thurber

Topics covered

  • coal
  • electricity
  • pollution
  • CO2 emissions
  • energy sources

Keywords

  • coal
  • electricity
  • pollution
  • CO2 emissions
  • energy
  • mining
  • transport

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Centre for Social and Economic Progress, Stanford University

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