Britain 'consigns coal power to the history books' as ban is brought forward to 2024:
The UK government has brought forward the ban on the use of unabated coal by a year, so that from 1 October 2024, Britain will no longer use coal within its energy system.
Energy and climate change minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan announced the change ahead of a Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) Europe roundtable meeting today. It follows significant progress in moving the UK away from the fossil fuel in recent years, with just 1.8% of the energy mix coming from coal in 2020, as opposed to 40% a decade ago.
The government launched a consultation in February 2020 on the possibility of bringing forward the phase-out date for coal generation forward from 2025. Since then, more coal power plants have continued to shutter with EDF announcing in March that its West Burton A station will close in September 2022. This follows Drax's two remaining coal plants closing in March 2021, and SSE's last coal-fired power station, Fiddler's Ferry, and RWE's Aberthaw B coal-fired power station, both closing in March 2020.
Uniper's Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant is set to be the sole coal-fired power station in the UK from 2022.
Renewable energy capacity has continued to soar, helping push coal off the grid. 2020 was dubbed the 'greenest year' ever by various groups as wind and solar continued to smash records.
[...] "The next decade will be make, or break, for our planet and the most powerful way we can make a difference is to end our reliance on coal."
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Friday July 02 2021, @10:16AM (20 children)
The latest two decades already broke it, we're just starting the mitigation stage now.
Doesn't matter, Exxon got its money and wants even more now [npr.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Friday July 02 2021, @09:07PM
Six degrees of Joe Manchin!
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Saturday July 03 2021, @01:49AM (18 children)
We are screwed, if that is the case.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday July 03 2021, @02:14AM (17 children)
38C soil temperatures above the Northern Circle [nasa.gov], what that methane freed from permafrost is gonna do?
Hundred of wildfires in Canada [theguardian.com]
Hundred of deaths from heat in Canada [theguardian.com]
Maybe we're not squashed yet, but the screw tightens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 03 2021, @03:53AM (16 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 03 2021, @01:21PM (2 children)
Why worry about that fully laden oil tanker heading for that shoal. It is only moving at 12 kts. It won't reach it for quite a while so we've got plenty of time to think about turning it.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 03 2021, @11:36PM (1 child)
Well, that's how they pilot oil tankers in the first place. There's no direction you can go in that won't eventually founder somewhere. But if you turn now rather than oh, 2000 km from now, you won't get where you want to go.
My point all along is that people are treating climate change as if it were the only thing in existence, the oil tanker heading for that shoal 2000 km away. But there's plenty that we will be doing with that oil tanker before it gets to those shoals. The key one is elevating almost 8 billion people out of poverty and turning almost the entire world into developed world. That's worth quite a bit of climate change.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday July 04 2021, @03:30AM
:-) Yeah, man.. we can sell its cargo two or three time over before it hits.. oops.. did the insurance lapse? Gee, sorry 'bout that
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday July 03 2021, @08:34PM (12 children)
My cousin used a similar rationale while strictly making minimum credit card payments, that was brought up recently when she asked her dad for a huge loan. Heh.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday July 04 2021, @01:23AM (11 children)
Obviously, I think the whole thing has gone the other way, exaggerated considerably rather than downplayed.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Monday July 05 2021, @12:28AM (10 children)
mm hm. You've probably got bobbly nodding heads agreeing with you, too, and that's comforting. That's not how reality's playing out, but it does make sleeping easier.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 05 2021, @09:56PM (9 children)
Indeed. But that works against you as well. The accumulated effects are not just climate change. That 80 million more people a year is a big effect. Human poverty is a big effect. Global pollution is a big effect. So is the development of humanity and our continued expansion of human knowledge. We have a lot of cards in play and they don't all have the same interest rate.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Monday July 05 2021, @10:57PM (8 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 06 2021, @03:07AM (7 children)
What's more important? Virtue signaling about minor climate change or the future of the world? Is it "me before thee"?
(Score: 2) by Tork on Tuesday July 06 2021, @05:31AM (6 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 06 2021, @02:54PM (5 children)
(Score: 2) by Tork on Tuesday July 06 2021, @03:05PM (4 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 06 2021, @03:58PM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by Tork on Tuesday July 06 2021, @05:02PM (2 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 07 2021, @03:02AM (1 child)
Indeed they do. Because it indicates I'm actually thinking about the problems. Unlike other people in this thread.
Sounds like you might need some reading comprehension here.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday July 07 2021, @05:53AM
Heh. Yeah, you're totally thinking about the problems. Well... excuses anyway.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1, Troll) by gawdonblue on Friday July 02 2021, @11:30AM
Apparently clear felling masses of American forests is OK for British power stations [youtube.com]. No CO2 problem with it. It's natural.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 02 2021, @02:12PM (4 children)
Now instead of burning it in clean well-regulated power plants it's going to be used in poorly maintained coal-powered automobiles.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday July 02 2021, @02:31PM (3 children)
or just leave it in the ground?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 02 2021, @04:23PM (2 children)
Put it in Trump's Christmas stocking. But only "clean" coal.
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 03 2021, @10:40PM (1 child)
Trump has not held political office for over half a year. Find a new bogeyman.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday July 06 2021, @01:49PM
Trump is still a bogeyman.
He continues to push baseless lies.
He encourages and inspires domestic terrorists with his fantasy of being back in power in
August the fall.He divides the country instead of trying to unite it. Even if you have a conservative political POV, you could work to try together. The other side, whichever side that is, isn't going away any time soon. Gridlock is bad.
Until Trump stops these things, he is a legitimate thing to complain and comment about.
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
(Score: 2) by EEMac on Friday July 02 2021, @02:21PM
China [oilprice.com] cheers your actions.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by tangomargarine on Friday July 02 2021, @03:17PM (1 child)
https://www.e3g.org/news/explained-what-does-unabated-coal-mean/ [e3g.org]
Why do I suspect that these two clauses are contradictory. Are they banning coal, or unabated coal? If the latter, they'll still be using coal within their energy system. If the former, why bring up abatement in the first place?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Friday July 02 2021, @06:56PM
They're banning unabated coal. Abated coal has carbon capture, utilization and storage [iea.org] technology to abate GHG emissions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 02 2021, @04:45PM (1 child)
Poor Newcastle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 03 2021, @02:23AM
Don't worry, it has plenty of gin [newcastlegin.co.uk].
(Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday July 03 2021, @04:09PM (2 children)
North sea natgas production has fallen to a quarter of "the booming 90s" and shows no sign of improvement; its been removed and burned up. Worldwide production continues to increase so we'll still have fertilizer and plastics because they're shippable, even if some areas no longer have winter heating and electricity.
Will be interesting to see how this turns out.
My guess is for scaremongering control they're gonna move away from environmental alarmism and more toward biowarfare like the recent covid thing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 03 2021, @07:15PM
errr ... i know it's all natural and i don't know which PR department was cooking with alot of salt, but "natgas" is short for "natural gas" (lol) and i associate it with methane. the "other" natgas is the stuff that evaporates or "transpires" from underground oil oceans and is "LPG" or "liquified petroleum gas"?
i think the stuff in the north sea is the LPG stuff, not methane (prolly a mix)? no "universal" consensus seems to have been reach in giving those two "consumer names". it's still "gas" at the pump station in usa tho :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 03 2021, @08:38PM
Wait 'til VLM works it out that he's supporting the alarmism-alarmism industry to the extent that he's hand-waving away two separate events that are actually endangering his life. lol