The Philippines is now among the biggest user of coal in the world to generate electricity.

It topped the region in the use of the fuel, branded as dirty energy source, surpassing Indonesia and China, while it broke into the world's top ten economies most dependent on coal-fired power, data from energy think tank Ember showed.

The country’s ranking underlines the challenges it faces to achieve its green energy goals, according to energy experts.

Share of coal in the generation mix overtook that of Poland, China and Indonesia in 2023. The country saw a sharp 2.9 percentage point annual coal share increase, from 59.1 percent in 2022 to 61.9 percent in 2023.

The rest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region also saw an increase of its coal reliance of 2 percentage points from 31 percent in 2022 to 33 percent in 2023.

However, this was a rebound following two consecutive annual falls and the coal share of generation was still 3.1 percentage points below 2020 levels.