A man fishing as a barge passes on the river of Mahakam to load coal from the mining area in Samarinda, East Kalimantan in Indonesia.

Coal is still a dominant fuel in the rapidly growing economies of Southeast Asia, even amid a general global move toward cleaner energy sources, data from several recent reports show.

"The narrative surrounding coal has been pessimistic across the world. This will result in the gradual slowdown of new coal-fired capacity in Southeast Asia," said Jacqueline Tao, research associate at Wood Mackenzie, a commodity consultancy.

"However, the reality of rising power demand and affordability issues in the region mean that we will only start to see coal's declining power post-2030," Tao said on Sept. 25 when the consultancy released a new report.

"Coal is still king in Southeast Asia's power market," according to Wood Mackenzie.

The coal industry has been facing widespread criticism from environmental campaigners for causing pollution.

But global coal demand grew for a second straight year to reach 0.7% in 2018, data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) showed.

In its report published in December, the IEA projected coal use through 2023 to be stable as strong consumption growth in Southeast Asia and India offsets declining usage in Europe and North America.

"Coal demand grows across much of Asia due to its affordability and availability," the IEA in that report.

Not only will coal continue to be the dominant fuel source in power generation in Southeast Asia, its use will grow and peak in 2027 before slowing, the Wood Mackenzie study found. By 2040, coal will account for 36% of Southeast Asia's energy mix for power generation, according to the consultancy.

The demand surge is primarily driven by Indonesia and Vietnam, accounting for almost 60% of Southeast Asian power demand by 2040, said Tao.

However, as more banks shun the financing of coal projects amid government commitments to turn to cleaner energy sources, renewable energy is expected become more pervasive.

Wood Mackenzie estimates that solar and wind power plants will lead in Southeast Asia's power capacity mix at 35% in 2040. The investment in wind and solar power will make up 23% of total power investment, amounting to more than $89 billion from 2019 to 2040.