The global capacity of power plants fired by coal, the fossil fuel that emits the most carbon dioxide when burned, rose nearly 1% last year as the world recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a research report by a U.S. environmental group.

The Global Energy Monitor (GEM) report found that global coal plant capacity grew 18.2 gigawatts to about 2,100 GW or about 0.87%. Scientists and activists have urged the world to move off coal to cleaner energy sources such as solar and wind power and in some cases, nuclear power.

Guest post from Reuters