Amber Rudd, the energy secretary has announced that Britain will stop burning coal for electricity within 10 years. Moreover, it will build new gas power plants for keeping the lights on. Burning coals can cause huge damage to the environment, for example, over 1,000,000 lives are shortened, and water will be polluted from mountaintop removal mining.
“Frankly, it cannot be satisfactory for an advanced economy like the U.K. to be relying on polluting, carbon-intensive 50-year-old coal-fired power stations,” Rudd said in a speech Wednesday. Using coal for electricity owns 29% of all the electricity usage in the UK last year, so closing all the industry who uses coal for electricity will bring a huge challenge to the government and society. A lot of industry who use coal to bring electricity has closed in recent years, but more than ten industries are still opening. Three of them will close in March next year.
The government already cut the subsidies for solar power earlier this year and plans to end incentives for onshore wind power next year. It is hopefully that the announcement will send signals to the investors in new gas power plants which helps the environment.
