Australia is the largest exporter of coal in the world

This visualization looks at the top 20 coal exporting countries based on 2018 data.

Coal production is incredibly important for the Australian economy, not only for exporting to other countries but also to power their own. Some 55 000 jobs are tied to coal production in Australia [Source]. However, as one of the largest contributors to human-made increases of C0₂ in the air [Source], the externalities from coal production affect both society and the environment. In 2013-14, coal generators in Australia emitted 151 million tonnes of greenhouse gas. This represents 29% of total emissions of around 523 million tonnes [Source].

Hover over the smoke plume to see the amount exported.

Notes

Design and code by Simone Betito with help from Andrew Levinson

2018 Data scraped from here