Historic Change as Britain Closes Last Coal-Fired Power Plant; Transition to Clean Energy Vital for Economy, Human Health

By Julia Longbottom / U.K. Ambassador to Japan

6:00 JST, October 1, 2024

Great Britain closed its last coal-fired power plant on Sept. 30. In the following contribution to The Japan News, British Ambassador Julia Longbottom talks about the importance of a transition to cleaner energy sources in the U.K.

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Today, people in Great Britain wake up coal power free. At midnight last night (Sept. 30), the U.K. switched off its last coal power station, ending over 140 years of coal-powered electricity generation in the U.K.

This is a historic moment. The U.K. was the first country in the world to generate electricity from coal and is the first G7 country to close all of its coal-fired power plants. In 1990, coal provided an astonishing 80% of U.K. power; in 2012, 40% of U.K. electricity came from coal; recently, it’s been close to zero.

In 2015, the U.K. first announced a 2025 coal-fired power plant closure date that was later brought forward to 2024. Clear early announcements gave industry time to prepare and gave the signal that sparked a clean energy revolution. The U.K.’s share of renewable energy has gone from 7% of our electricity supply in 2010 to over 50% in the first quarter of this year.

That clean energy revolution can be told through the U.K.’s story of offshore wind deployment. More than a third of all offshore wind globally is deployed in the U.K., and power from offshore wind has made up most of the U.K.’s coal reduction. The U.K. is second only to China in terms of total installed offshore wind capacity.

And the U.K.’s clean energy revolution is set to continue. This summer, the new Labour Government announced a national mission to become a clean energy superpower and achieve clean power by 2030. And in September, the U.K. Foreign Secretary (our Foreign Minister), David Lammy, gave his first set-piece foreign policy speech committing to put action to address the climate and nature crisis at the center of everything the U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (our Foreign Ministry) does. Why? Because as Lammy said, “There will be no global stability without climate stability.”

Coal powered the world’s first trains and industrial machines, and heated homes across the U.K. In our next industrial revolution, renewable energy (like wind and solar) and nuclear are already powering industries of the future: data centers, AI, smart grids, electric vehicles, connected homes and networks.

Transitioning to clean energy boosts energy independence, supports energy security and national security, creates jobs, and enables economic growth. It also protects human health and the environment. Coal is the highest-emitting fossil fuel and the energy source responsible for the most human deaths. Analysis has found that more than 800,000 people die each year around the world from the pollution generated by burning coal.

Emissions from burning coal and other fossil fuels drive climate change and extreme weather. Researchers at Imperial College London found that Typhoon Shanshan, which hit Japan in late August, was made 7.5% more intense and 26% more likely by human-caused climate change. The researchers said that “as long as humans heat the climate, typhoons will continue to intensify.” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations have called on all developed countries to phase out coal by 2030 and to stop building new coal power facilities. Ending coal power can help us make progress on emissions reductions and move forward with our shared goal to achieve net zero emissions.

The U.K. is aiming to become a clean energy superpower by 2030. I look forward to the U.K. meeting this goal together with Japan — and standing together as two partner clean energy superpowers.