In 1882, the world’s first coal-burning power plant opened at London’s Holborn Viaduct. This week, Britain’s last coal-fired station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in the East Midlands shut down, making the home of the industrial revolution the first G7 country to end coal power. The UK’s experience highlights lessons, and pitfalls, for other developed countries — and over time for the likes of India and China, still adding coal-fired plants but committed to cutting carbon emissions long term.
Britain’s 21st-century path to zero-coal electricity was eased by events before the climate battle took off. The discovery of North Sea gas in the 1960s opened the way for the 1990s “dash for gas” by newly privatised generators. Gas provided a lower carbon emission bridging fuel that will supply Britain until at least 2030. In the 1980s, the Thatcher government closed dozens of UK coal mines after a tumultuous, year-long miners’ strike. Inefficiency, not green concerns, was the main argument, and the socio-economic impacts are still felt today. But coal producers were neutralised as a domestic lobby, unlike in Australia, the US or Germany.