UK’s Shutdown of Coal-Fueled Stations Keeps Carbon Reduction Initiatives on Track

The UK government is quite proud to achieve recognition for being one of the early adopters of clean energy. The country’s goal is to totally move away from operating coal powered stations, toward zero fossil fuel-use by year 2025.

Since 1:00 pm last May 01 onward, major coal-fueled stations in the country were shut down, while additional electrical power is provided by offshore wind turbines. The number of wind turbines installed is unprecedented in any other country, as installations of 9,702 wind turbines saw completion in April 2019. All of which have the capacity to produce an enormous 20.8 gigawatts; 12,904 megawatts allocated as onshore capacity, with remaining 7,895 megawatts allotted as offshore capacity.

Currently, wind turbines account for only 24 percent of UK’s electrical power. Natural gas, a type of fossil fuel considered as cleaner by far than coal, remains as the biggest electrical power generator at 46 percent. Jonathan Marshall, Head of Energy and Climate remarked,

“Outdated warnings that cutting carbon from our power system would lead to blackouts have been comprehensively proven to be incorrect.”

Still, with the country relying mainly on low-carbon fuel, the government must ensure, the supply of natural gas does not run dry.

UK Committee on Climate Change Reports Significant Improvement in Bid to Reduce Carbon Footprint

In the lastest 2018 Progress Report to Parliament, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) gave information that UK’s carbon emissions as of 2017 went below by 43 percent from the levels recorded since 1990.

The CCD had previously mapped out carbon reduction budgets into 4 periods, starting from 2008 to 2027, whilst aiming to reduce total emissions by 80 percent from the 1990 levels. The 2018 Progress Report indicated that the UK is currently on track. The second (2013-17) and third (2018-22) carbon budgets saw out performances, although still not on track to meet the 4th (2023-27).

in order to achieve UK’s goal of reducing emissions by at least 80% by year 2050, at least 3% of overall domestic emissions must be reduced. The CCC recommends implementation of more challenging measures since the present progress is mostly attributed to carbon reduction from electricity generation. Indicating that improvements in carbon reduction from other sectors are yet to be achieved.

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