Responding to the speech today by Amber Rudd, the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said:

“It is a historic announcement by Amber Rudd that the UK will close down its remaining coal-fired power stations by 2025 if they are not equipped to stop greenhouse gases and other pollution from escaping into the atmosphere. Coal power stations contribute to the air pollution that kills nearly 30,000 people in the UK each year, and millions of people around the world. According to the International Monetary Fund, coal receives an effective subsidy of nearly £19 billion each year because its price does not reflect the real costs it creates through air pollution and climate change. Much of that subsidy goes overseas as 85 per cent of the demand for coal is met through imports from Russia and other countries. So it is right that the Government has signalled an end to the age of dirty power. This decision will resonate around the world, particularly as the UK was the first country to demonstrate how coal could fuel the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. The world’s largest consumer of coal, China, has already reached its peak. It is important that other emerging economy and developing countries also find ways to grow without the devastating harm from coal pollution.

“A major test of the Government’s ‘energy policy reset’ is whether it fulfils the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change, the independent experts who advise on the UK’s efforts to avoid dangerous global warming of more than 2 centigrade degrees. Much of Amber Rudd’s speech is in line with the Committee’s advice about a cost-effective path towards reducing the UK’s annual emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 80 per cent by 2050 compared with 1990. The UK’s emissions have already fallen by about 36 per cent since 1990, while our GDP has increased by about 60 per cent. The UK is demonstrating that reducing emissions does not mean sacrificing economic growth. There is much logic in focusing subsidies for renewables on support for offshore wind capacity, which needs to expand to help replace coal power stations. Gas-fired power stations will have a role to play until the 2030s, and possibly beyond if they are equipped with carbon capture and storage technology, the development of which also needs strong Government support. The next big test for the Government is whether it will accept the advice, due to be published next week by the Committee on Climate Change, about the UK’s Fifth Carbon Budget, which should set a target for annual emissions to be about 60 per cent lower in 2030 than in 1990.”

For more information about this media release, please contact Ben Parfitt b.parfitt@lse.ac.uk, or Bob Ward  r.e.ward@lse.ac.uk.

 

NOTES FOR EDITORS

  1. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (https://www.lse.ac.uk/grantham) was launched at the London School of Economics and Political Science in October 2008. It is funded by The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment (https://www.granthamfoundation.org/).
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