Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Taking a decisive step against pollution, the United Kingdom on Monday closed the last coal-fired power plant in the country, the media reported.
London had, in 2015, announced to close all its coal-based power plants within a decade as part of wider measures to reach its climate targets.
Closing the nation’s last coal-based plant, Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar in England’s Midlands, the UK has become the first G-7 country to end the practice it started 140 years ago.
In 2015, nearly 30 percent of the UK’s total electricity generation was based on coal. Last year, it fell to just over 1 percent.
“The UK has proven that it is possible to phase out coal power at unprecedented speed,” said Julia Skorupska, Head of the Powering Past Coal Alliance secretariat, a group of about 60 national governments seeking to end coal power.
The drop in coal power has helped cut the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, which have more than halved since 1990.
London, which decided to reach net zero emissions by 2050, also plans to decarbonize the electricity sector by 2030. It will require a rapid ramp-up in renewable power such as wind and solar, the reports said.
“The era of coal might be ending, but a new age of good energy jobs for our country is just beginning,” Energy Minister Michael Shanks said.
Emissions from energy make up around three-quarters of total greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists have said the use of fossil fuels must be curbed to meet goals set under the Paris Climate Agreement.
In April, the G-7 major industrialized countries agreed to scrap coal power in the first half of the next decade but also gave some leeway to heavily coal-reliant economies, drawing criticism from green groups.
“There is a lot of work to do to ensure that both the 2035 target is met and brought forward to 2030, particularly in Japan, the US, and Germany,” said Christine Shearer, Research Analyst, at Global Energy Monitor.
Coal power still makes up more than 25 percent of Germany’s electricity and more than 30 percent of Japan’s power.