Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has announced a proposal to close the UK’s remaining coal-fired power plants, in a bid to move towards more environmentally friendly forms of energy.

Tightening EU legislation on emissions and an uneconomical energy prices means that, although a third of Britain’s electricity is currently provided by coal, all remaining coal power plants willl be closed by 2025.

Rudd said in a statement today:

“Frankly, it cannot be satisfactory for an advanced economy like the UK to be relying on polluting, carbon-intensive 50-year-old coal-fired power stations. Let me be clear: this is not the future.

“We need to build a new energy infrastructure, fit for the 21st century.”

Despite the controversy surrounding nuclear energy, the government’s preferred direction for energy policy is nuclear energy and lower-carbon gas power plants; which will enable it to meet EU emissions targets by 2050. Gas plants emit almost half the amount of carbon dioxide per megawatt produced as coal plants.

18/11/2015