UK carbon emissions now at 1890 levels

[ALEO Admin]

Provisional government statistics show that the UK's carbon emissions have reached their lowest levels since the Victorian era, due mainly to the country's reduced reliance on coal and the surge in renewable electricity generation. The figures show that carbon emissions are now 38 per cent below 1990 levels and the lowest they have been in any year since 1890, with the exception of brief periods during strikes in the 1920s.

Coal accounted for less than 7 per cent of UK power generation in 2017, down from over 40 per cent as recently as 2012. However, carbon emissions still need to be reduced by more than two thirds before 2050 if the UK is to meet its legally binding goal to reduce emissions by 80 per cent below 1990 levels.

An article in the Financial Times reports that "Critics say that replacing coal was the easiest part of decarbonisation and that further progress will require more difficult steps, such as electrifying road transportation and finding alternatives to gas in both power generation and heating".

Carbon Brief, which published the analysis of the government statistics, says that a slowdown in decarbonisation was visible in the data, with last year’s 2.6 per cent drop in emissions lower than the 5.8 per cent fall in 2016, in part because of a slight rise in oil and petroleum use.

For more information, see:
https://www.ft.com/content/47563b2a-21f ... f715791301 and
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk ... en-in-1890