30 June 2021

End to UK coal power brought forward to October 2024

Deadline to phase out coal from energy system fast-tracked by a year.

coal in a truck seen from above
© Bence Balla-Schottner/Unsplash

From 1 October 2024 Great Britain will no longer use coal to generate electricity, a year earlier than planned, the UK Energy and Climate Change Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan has announced.

This brings forward the deadline to phase out coal from Great Britain’s energy system by a whole year. The UK government will introduce new legislation to do this at the earliest opportunity. 

In the UK, coal accounts for 1.8% of the UK’s electricity mix in 2020, compared with 40% almost a decade ago.

Trevelyan says, 'The UK’s net-zero future will be powered by renewables, and it is this technology that will drive the green industrial revolution and create new jobs across the country.'

 

Related topics