North Americans and Europeans have every reason to celebrate their success in reducing coal consumption over the past decade. (In the United States, much credit goes to the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, which is a third of the way to reaching its goal of retiring or preventing from being built 523 coal plants—178 and counting.) But from a global perspective, coal remains a major concern. Its use has skyrocketed in Asia, where 

70 percent of the world's coal is consumed; China alone burns half the world's coal. Nevertheless, China's coal boom may have peaked—its coal consumption actually decreased slightly in the first half of this year—while global renewable energy sources have surged. Wind and solar energy now provide 3.2 percent of the world's electricity and represent 28 percent of the growth in electricity generation.