Global coal demand is expected to jump 2.6% in 2021 and both the United States and the European Union might see their coal consumption grow next year for the first time in nearly a decade as a recovery in economic activity boosts coal use for electricity and industrial output, the International Energy Agency said on December 18. Due to the impact of the pandemic this year, global coal demand has experienced a record drop since World War II, the IEA said, global coal demand will decrease by 5%. The IEA added that global coal consumption is estimated to have fallen by 7%, or over 500 million tons, between 2018 and 2020 as a result of the pandemic and countries seeking to switch to cleaner sources of energy. A decline of this size over a two-year period is unprecedented in IEA records, which go back as far as 1971. The IEA expects that global coal demand is forecast to flatten out at around 7.4 billion tons by 2025. In addition, the IEA said in its Coal 2020 report that demand for thermal coal and metallurgical coal will increase from 7.243 billion tons this year to 7.432 billion tons in 2021.