Cheers To The United Kingdom – OpEd
Last week, the UK’s final coal-fired plant, the 56-year-old Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station, was officially shut down. Thus, the country’s nearly 200-year journey with coal has come to an end.
The significance of this event lies in the fact that it took place in the very nation that, 142 years ago, hosted the world’s first coal-powered electricity plant, making it a symbolic moment that was met with much praise. The decision was hailed as a “huge win for the UK public”. Some NGOs even went so far as to say that the UK is a “true global leader, lighting the path for other countries to follow”.
We are well aware that carbon dioxide emissions from coal are one of the major causes of global warming, so the efforts of countries to move away from this fuel and towards cleaner energy sources deserve praise. However, before I join the chorus of applause, I believe it is worth taking a closer look at the UK’s coal history.
As you know, the intensive use of coal in the world first appeared in the UK in the mid-nineteenth century. For nearly the entire period up until the early twentieth century, this country was the world’s largest consumer of this dirty fuel. Moreover, up until the 1940s, England was the world’s largest coal exporter. However, the human tragedies and environmental disasters that occurred in the UK due to coal production and consumption at that time are among the dark pages of history. In fact, these dark pages also form the background of the UK’s industrialization and its current prosperity.
The UK maintained its heavy consumption of coal, which began in the 1850s, up until recent times. Just 10 years ago, it was among the top four coal-consuming countries in the European continent and ranked within the top 14 globally. Again, 10 years ago, it had the second highest carbon dioxide emissions in Europe and was ranked eleventh in the world.
Despite the exit process of coal, we cannot yet say that the UK is at a much better point today in terms of the use of clean energy sources. Last year, fossil fuels still made up 74 percent of the country’s total energy consumption, which is about six points higher than the European average, and it remains the third highest emitter of carbon dioxide in Europe.
As for the exit process, the UK government undoubtedly took significant measures, making it difficult to build new coal plants, pricing emissions to make coal investments less attractive. During the process, the decline in the costs of renewable energy sources also played a significant role. However, there were much more decisive reasons for the UK to move away from coal. Notably, both primary energy and electricity demand in the UK have fallen by nearly 30 percent over the past two decades. This decline was influenced not only by regulations promoting energy efficiency but also by the significant offshoring of carbon-intensive industries. Consumers in the UK continued to source products from these industries, but the pollution was transferred outside the UK. On the other hand, the country’s possession of huge gas reserves, which are scarce in many countries, facilitated the transition.
However, the most decisive factor was that the UK no longer had sufficient workable coal reserves. Today, it has only 187 million tons of economically recoverable reserves, which is not enough to build even one new power plant like the one it closed last week.
Let’s be honest, when you run out of reserves, exiting coal becomes an easy task. But had the UK possessed large-scale reserves to invest in, would it still have exited coal? Or would it have set a date similar to Germany’s target of the 2040s? I leave that question to you, dear readers.
In conclusion, the UK has been one of the world’s top polluters for 150 years. Yet now, when it no longer has any reserves, it declares its exit from coal and uses climate pressure to impose commercial barriers on countries that continue to use coal, shifting the burden of emission reduction costs onto developing nations through carbon regulation mechanisms. Moreover, despite all of this, it still manages to achieve praise even from environmental organizations. It is not the UK’s exit from coal, but rather this very achievement that I believe deserves applause.
