The UK will no longer use coal to generate electricity from October 2024 as part of moves to cut climate emissions from the grid, the Government has confirmed.
The move brings forward the phase-out for unabated coal power, which does not have technology to capture and permanently bury its carbon dioxide emissions, by a year from the originally scheduled date of October 2025.
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The UK grid’s shift from coal towards a growing reliance on renewables has helped drive down emissions as part of the legal target to cut pollution to zero overall – known as net zero – by 2050, though meeting the goal now needs more efforts to clean up home heating, transport, industry and farming.
The move brings forward the phase-out for unabated coal power, which does not have technology to capture and permanently bury its carbon dioxide emissions, by a year from the originally scheduled date of October 2025.
The UK grid’s shift from coal towards a growing reliance on renewables has helped drive down emissions as part of the legal target to cut pollution to zero overall – known as net zero – by 2050, though meeting the goal now needs more efforts to clean up home heating, transport, industry and farming.
The Government confirmed in 2017 that it would regulate the closure of all the UK’s unabated coal power plants by October 2025, and in February last year Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans to bring forward the deadline to 2024. That move has now been confirmed following a consultation earlier this year.
There are just three operational coal power plants in the UK, since the remaining coal units at Drax in North Yorkshire were mothballed in March, and all are already expected to close by October 2024.
Source: Yorkshire Post