World Bulletin / News Desk

Coal was the fastest-growing fossil fuel in 2013 while natural gas consumption decelerated at the global level, BP's head Bob Dudley said on Monday.

Speaking at the "BP Statistical Review of World Energy" event held at the World Pertoleum Congress meeting in Moscow, Dudley said China and India combined accounted for roughly the 90 percent of the growth in coal consumption.

The latest figures came amid growing concerns over the devastating effects of use of coal in power generation.

Experts and environmentalist voiced their concerns over the increased use of coal, which is considered detrimental to air and environment when burned to generate electricity in power plants. China faced its worst air pollution during the last winter and decided to take action against smog by promoting renewable energy resources, singaling the country's struggle to overcome devastating pollution.

The Asia Pacific countries, including China and India, are the largest producers and the largest consumers, said Christoff Ruhl, BP group chief economist during the launch event.

China consumed around 2 billion tonnes of coal -- more than half of the world's total coal consumption -- in 2013 while India and Europe combined consumed more than 800 million tonnes, according to BP data.

The abundant shale resources wedded to favorable investment conditions has pushed the shale gas production to unprecendented levels in the U.S. The increased natural gas supplies pushed the price of coal down, favoring the natural gas as a source of energy instead of coal in U.S. China, India and Europe have preferred imports of coal -- whose price has fallen two years in a row -- for generating electricity.

A surge in natural gas prices following the nuclear disaster in Japan and the crisis in Ukraine has further added to the discrediting of natural gas as a power source.