End to coal power brought forward to October 2024 in Great Britain

E.S.G. Solutions is happy to hear that the deadline to phase out coal from Great Britain’s energy system has been brought forward by a whole year, highlighting the UK’s leadership to go further in driving down GHG emissions and tackling climate change.

From 1st October 2024 Great Britain will no longer use coal to generate electricity, a year earlier than planned, as just announced by Energy and Climate Change Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan.

The move is part of ambitious government commitments to transition away from fossil fuels and decarbonise the power sector in order to eliminate contributions to climate change by 2050, as the UK proposes to lead by example in tackling climate change ahead of hosting the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) summit in Glasgow this November.

Coal is one of the most carbon intensive fossil fuels and responsible for harmful air pollution. By eliminating its use in electricity generation, the UK can make sure it plays a critical role in limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees – a key aim of its COP26 presidency.

If you like statistics, the UK has made huge progress in reducing the use of coal across the power sector, with coal accounting for only 1.8% of the UK’s electricity mix in 2020, compared with 40% in 2012. In 2020, the UK generated 43.1% of its electricity from renewable sources, including wind (24.2%), bioenergy (12.6%), solar (4.2%) and hydro (2.2%). Nuclear generation made up a further 16.1%.

PS And if you’re intrigued by the small print as much as we are at E.S.G. Solutions…then you should be mindful that this policy only applies to coal used to generate electricity. It does not apply to other coal consumers such as the steel industry, nor to domestic coal mines.