The closure of Ratcliffe-on-Soar is a symbolic step in the UK’s ambition to decarbonise electricity by 2030, and become carbon neutral by 2050. The date was brought forward in 2021 by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as he sought to demonstrate the UK’s ability to achieve Its goals. Climate leadership ahead of the annual UN climate change summit in Glasgow that year.
The roots of Britain’s industrial decline: Clashes between striking miners and police in the town of Woolley, Yorkshire, in 1984 during a miners’ strike.credit: Getty Images
Germany plans to do the same by 2038, Canada by 2030, and Italy from the end of 2025, with the exception of Sardinia. Most acknowledge that it won’t be as easy as it seems.
Just 12 years ago, coal plants provided 40 per cent of the UK’s electricity, and it was only in 2017 that the country saw its first coal-free day.
Last year coal use fell by 23 per cent and now represents just 1.1 per cent of the UK energy mix, with 34.7 per cent coming from gas, 32.8 per cent from wind and solar, and 11.6 per cent from bioenergy. And 13.8 percent from renewable energy. Five nuclear sites. The rest is imported via interconnections from continental Europe.
In addition to the growth of renewables, another factor allowing the rapid phase-out of coal generation in the UK is the decline in electricity demand since 2005, thanks to a combination of energy efficiency regulations, LED lighting and the offshoring of some energy-intensive industries. Industries.
“It is a landmark event that should be celebrated, and serves as an inspiration for other countries around the world to follow suit,” says Daniel Therkelsen, campaign director at campaign group Coal Action Network.
He says that by removing coal from the energy mix, the UK has taken a crucial step in reducing its carbon footprint and improving air quality.
But looking to the future, Therkelsen says the challenge now is to ensure the UK’s energy system remains reliable and affordable as the shift towards renewables continues.
Ratcliffe has received some 141,768 shipments of coal by rail from nearby Nottinghamshire coal mines by rail since 1967, with the last coal shipment taking place in June.
An analysis from Carbon Summary this week found that from 1882 until the Ratcliffe closure, UK coal plants burned 4.6 billion tonnes of coal and released 10.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide – more than most countries ever produced from all Sources.
Chris Kitchen, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, says Ratcliffe’s closure marks the end of industrial decline whose roots go back four decades in miners’ strikes. Many former coal mining communities remain poor, and this period has been cited as a “failed just transition period” for coal workers.
Kitchen admits that although Britain may be greener, it has lost something important in the process.
“The coal industry has never been very profitable, you know. It was about the national interest,” he said in a radio interview this week.
“I’m not a dinosaur who wants to live in the Dark Ages. We need to tackle climate change, but let’s do it without blinders on.
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