Here is a long article from Technology Review about the state of coal as an energy source.
Coal supplies 24 percent of all global energy and 40 percent of all electricity, and it spews more carbon than any other fossil source — kilowatt for kilowatt, twice as much as natural gas. Yet coal is the most abundant fossil fuel, and its use is intensifying.
The article explains that we are not using new ways of extracting coal that have zero emissions.