The United Kingdom, the globe’s sixth largest economy by GDP, accelerated decarbonization efforts in their electrical grid in 2024. Carbon Brief reveals that the UK has shifted away from fossil fuels as renewable energy production has more than doubled in the last decade as national GDP continues to grow.
Why It Matters
Ending Coal Power: The UK became the first G7 nation to completely stop using coal power, closing the final coal-burning power plant Ratcliffe-on-Soar in September, marking the end of 142 years of coal-fired power generation.
Prioritization of Renewables: Renewable energy production overtook fossil fuel generation as 58% of energy came from clean sources, a substantial step forward to achieving the government target of 95% by 2030.
Impact on Downstream Emissions: The reduction in fossil fuel power generation has created a cleaner electric grid, improving the lifecycle CO2 savings of electric vehicles and household heat pumps (compared to gas boilers).
Details
The UK rose to global prominence through rapid coal-driven industrialization but has shifted away from fossil fuels in recent years. Fossil fuel power generation has fallen to 91 terawatt hours (TWh), mostly natural gas (which is notably cleaner that coal or oil) from 203TWh in 2014, a decline of 55%. Renewable power has increased to 143TWh, a 122% increase from 65TWh in 2014. This has led emissions-per-unit to fall by two-thirds in the last decade.
The growth in renewable electricity production has been driven by two core factors: the rapid expansion of wind energy and a declining nationwide energy demand.
Despite relatively poor wind conditions during 2024, wind power generation in the UK reached a record output of 22.5GW on December 19th. Wind power output has more than doubled to 84TWh in the last decade and is projected to outpace gas production (88TWh) in 2025 as several new offshore windfarms are expected to open in coming years.
Electricity demand in the UK has been falling for years, peaking in 2005 despite total population growth. Economic growth has also been decoupled from energy demand, highlighting the potential for a true net-zero economy. The decrease in energy demand can largely be attributed to improved energy efficiency of appliances/lighting, efficiency regulations, consumer consciousness, and a domestic shift away from energy-intensive industrial production.
A cleaner electrical grid has reverberating effects on the UK’s total carbon footprint, particularly in transportation and domestic heating.
An average gas/petrol car in the UK generates 2.7 tons of CO2 per year while an electric vehicle generates less than 10% of that at 245kg of CO2, down from 830kg of CO2 in 2014. For an EV to offset the emissions of its production, it will only take 12,000 miles, a 25% decrease in distance from 2014 (16,000 miles). This leads the lifetime emissions of an EV today to be 70% lower than an average gas-powered car while they were only 50% lower in 2014.
This downstream effect is similar for homes with an electric heat pump. Emissions for homes with a heat pump have fallen by 1 ton in the last decade to 0.4t annually in 2024. In 2014, the installing a heat pump over a gas boiler allowed a household to reduce heat-related emissions by 45%, but reductions have increased to 84% in 2024.
Investments in renewable energy and movement away from fossil fuels has coincided with substantial growth in national GDP over the last decade, growing from $3.065 trillion in 2014 to $3.340 trillion in 2023. This growth, despite global economic decline in 2020, validates the importance of investing in clean energy production, especially for late-stage economies with high levels of consumer-driven emissions.
In the UK, decoupling GDP growth from climate pollution has been successful. Progress in renewable energy has laid the foundation for further investments in climate-friendly technology, such as electric buses. This achievement serves as a framework for progress for other governments to mimic.
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