You can see in Figure 1, above, that the amount of electricity generated from coal has declined slowly but steadily since 1998. The graph shows that gas, another fossil fuel, remains important and is still used to generate about a third of our electricity. It also shows that electricity from nuclear power has decreased a little, because many of the UK’s nuclear power stations are old and have closed. Electricity from renewable sources was almost negligible in the early part of this century but is now increasing quickly and is becoming more important.
The UK has a target to reach net zero by 2050. This means not adding to greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. So far, progress has gone well but it will be difficult to meet this target in time. As a first step the government pledged to generate clean electricity by 2035, and because coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel, producing the most greenhouse gas when burnt, it was essential to stop using this first.
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