Think about developing countries where people could not afford to improve their infrastructure. That's the real deal.
Rich country or not, people want cheap electricity and until fracking unlocked cheap natural gas in the US, coal was the cheap option.
https://www.channel4.com/news/how-coal-mining-threatens-aust...
The main reason they infrastructure is currently on coal is ironically because they did invest in infrastructure in the past and those decisions are usually best done in advance as funding is spread out over vast periods of time. Needless to say the infastructure became outdated and the advancement wasn't quite as graceful like telecom companies who could make an outright profit during an upgrade by laying down some fiber and ripping out and selling all of their old copper. They do have a counterpart in many cases of 'burn natural gas instead to save money and do it cleaner'.