I find these figures a little hard to believe.~ctm
The UK’s carbon dioxide emissions fell for the sixth year in a row last year, the longest continuous run of reductions on record, analysis suggests.
Emissions fell to 361 million tonnes, their lowest level since 1888, when the first Football League match was played and Jack the Ripper stalked London’s streets, excluding years with major strike action.
The amount of carbon pollution per person was 5.4 tonnes, the lowest it has been since 1858, the analysis by energy and climate website Carbon Brief indicates.
Bolding mine.
Carbon Brief estimates emissions were down 1.5% on 2017 levels, largely the result of a continued decline in the use of coal for electricity generation, with little change in oil or gas use.
Newly-released figures from the Business and Energy Department (Beis) show only 6% of UK electricity supplies came from coal in 2018.
And the kicker, again bolding mine.
The analysis found emissions were down 39% on 1990 levels, the baseline year for carbon pollution cuts.
Here’s the full story at Energy Voice
HT/Keith
The comments in this previous coverage are enlightening.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-carbon-emissions-in-2017-fell-to-levels-last-seen-in-1890
Check it out.
I’ll bet Brexit can take it down a few more years. Promote Corbyn and they can add another 20 years of reduction to the tally….Venezuelan style.
Easy to account for: look at the close down of coal power stations… plus the lack of use the remaining ones get through summer months.
See here for plant closures:
https://www.carbonbrief.org/countdown-to-2025-tracking-the-uk-coal-phase-out
‘Three large coal plants have closed during 2016: Longannet, Ferrybridge C and Rugeley (see map and tables). Eggborough and Fiddlers Ferry had planned to close, but have put those plans on hold. (Update 2/2018: Eggborough will close after September 2018).
Around 4 gigawatts (GW) of capacity has closed this year (2017), leaving 15GW able to operate today. Together, these remaining plants emitted 53m tonnes of CO2 in 2015, around 11% of total UK greenhouse gas emissions that year.’
Look at ‘last year’ figures here for coal electricity generation – see the summer gap?
http://gridwatch.co.uk/
Inelastic demand. Try again with the gap and you find yourself with a nasty statewide blackout. Venezela, here we come.
Here’s another reason CO2 is down…
https://renews.biz/52047/blustery-britain-basks-in-wind-power/
“Onshore and offshore wind provided 35.6% of UK electricity, with gas in second place with 31.2% from Friday 8 March to Thursday 14 March”
And today, wind is providing 2.72% at the moment. That’s great, Griff. Just structure your life around the electricity provided by wind power.
So absolutely nothing to do with the 14.3% reduction in demand over the last 7 years?
To elaborate on your point, the reference UK report in Table 1.01 shows industrial energy consumption down 50% since the 1970’s and 30% since the year 2000. As a percent of the total energy use, in 1970’s industry used 38% but by 2017 only 17%.
CO2 emissions are reduced in this sector, by a loss of industrial production and efficiency improvements. There is no reason to celebrate loss of industry.
griffer, to demonstrate your green-cred, you need to use only what the pinwheels and sunlight-catchers generate. Yes, it’s all combined w/FF generation on the grid, but at least you can avoid being a hypocrite-greenie. IOW, if wind is churning out 10% of the UK total, you need to cut your usage to 10% of what you used to use. Post your power bills before and after here so we can vet them & give a green-stamp of approval.
Golly griff a whole 6 days|!
Talk about cherry picking Griff, a propaganda announcement to mask their uselessness.
There have been days at a time this past winter where wind and solar provided negligible power, it was gas and nuclear and the remaining coal that kept the lights on, it was very close to the edge at times – in an exceptionally mild winter.
Windmills/solar only account for 18% in the cut of UK emissions since 1990 – pathetic, and ruinously expensive.
I imagine they dont count the DRAX co2 output, as its carbon neutral isnt it?
I have a paper published on UK generation covering the period 1920 to 2017, with more detail on the last 20 years.
https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2019/01/Capell-Aris-UK-Electricity-System-1.pdf
Most of the recent cuts in total CO2 emissions for generation have come from
(1) reduction in demand for electricity,
(2) followed by a recent (last five years) move from coal to gas generation,
(3) and then, least of all, increased use of renewables.
I also show that if the UK had not bothered with renewables from about 2010, but continued the 1990s dash for gas and displaced coal generation, the UK would have saved £90 billion of generation costs, and reduced total emissions by between 300 and 350 million tonnes compared to the renewable system (see Figure 17 of the paper).
This isn’t rocket science: if we’d just continued the dash for gas of the 90s we’d have been well ahead of the game.
Of course, electricity is only about 25 % of the UK’s energy consumption.
And the children will never see a cow.
Re the figures, as the price of energy goes u, the usage of it will go down, smile really.
As Brexit appears to be coming to a end, shock horror, the UK will have to face the hard fact of living in the real World.
And if the EU Polish coal is too dear, we here in Australia have thousands of years supply, and its cheap.
MJE VK5ELL
Well, my step-father has just binned his Honda Accord after 22 years form new. Not his first car but, 22 years from date of manufacture? That’s pretty amazing! My First car, a Hillman Imp, made at Routes in Scotland, was 8 years old when I got it for GBP75. It was 8 years old (“H” reg. BPD 781H.) and when I got it, basically, a pile of carp!
British car making at it’s best!
Another little factoid:
According to BP World Energy Statistics, UK emissions peaked at 718.2mtCO2 in 1973. The 36.1mtCO2 is only a tiny smidgen short of achieving a 50% reduction.
‘C02 emissions’ is a misleading alarmist buzzword – ’emissions’ implies pollution and C02 is NOT pollution. And MORE C02 is better. Why indulge the nonsensical and essentially diabolical AGW narrative?
That is most likely just a number thrown out there to satisfy the policies set forth at Paris. You cannot figure accurately when the only way you figure is the number of coal boilers no longer burning coal. I believe they do not count biomass (wood pellets) which emit more carbon than coal. Do they have some magical machine that measures the atmosphere?…no…. so these figures are just theory.