The country’s final coal-fired power plant just shut down, marking a major milestone for the notoriously polluting fossil fuel. The UK is shutting d

The UK is done with coal. How’s the rest of the world doing?

submited by
Style Pass
2024-11-18 18:00:10

The country’s final coal-fired power plant just shut down, marking a major milestone for the notoriously polluting fossil fuel.

The UK is shutting down its final coal-fired power plant today, marking the end of an era for the country’s energy system. Once the backbone of the grid, coal has been steadily replaced with other, less polluting energy sources.

Coal is the most emissions-intensive fuel powering the grid today, and moving away from it, even to other fossil fuels, can help reduce climate pollution. Some countries have started to replace the fuel in earnest—members of the G7, a group of wealthy economies, have all agreed to phase out coal-fired power plants that don't use carbon capture by 2035. But coal is still booming in other parts of the world, especially in some larger countries where electricity demand is growing quickly.

The power plant, scheduled to shut down at midnight on September 30, is called Ratcliffe-on-Soar, and it's the last bastion of coal in the UK, where the fuel has a rich history. The country relied on coal for over 100 years, and until 1990, it made up the lion’s share of electricity generated there.

Leave a Comment