Britain to become first G7 country to end coal power as plant closes
STORY: Britain will become the first G7 country to end coal-fired power production on Monday (September 30).
It sees the closure of its last plant, Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar in England’s Midlands, ending more than 140 years of coal power in Britain.
In 2015, Britain announced plans to close coal plants within the next decade as part of wider measures to reach its climate targets.
Just under a third of the country’s electricity came from coal at the time, but this had fallen to slightly over 1% last year.
The drop in coal power has helped cut Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions, which have more than halved since 1990.
Britain has a target to reach net zero emissions by 2050, and plans to decarbonize the electricity sector by 2030.
The move will need a rapid ramp-up in renewable power such as wind and solar.
Emissions from energy make up around three quarters of total greenhouse gas emissions.
Scientists have said the use of fossil fuels must be cut to meet goals set under 2015’s Paris climate agreement.
The G7 major industrialized countries agreed at a meeting this year to end coal power in the first half of the next decade.
But it did give some leeway to economies which are heavily coal-reliant, drawing criticism from green groups.
Coal power still makes up more than a quarter of Germany’s electricity and over 30% of Japan’s power.
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