UK Carbon emissions at record low

Source: FT
At this rate, the UK will cut emissions nearly to 1850 levels by 2030.

From IEEFA:

British carbon emissions fell to just 97 grams per kilowatt-hour (kWh) on Sunday June 30, its lowest ever carbon intensity and meeting for the first time ever the UK Committee on Climate Change’s 2030 target of 100 g/kWh for a whole day.

This new record – which breaks the previous record of 104 g/kWh set during the country’s last summer – plays into a larger trend which, according to British electrical power generation company Drax, which published the analysis of carbon emissions on Tuesday, is seeing British power stations produce 100 million tonnes less CO2 per year than they were at the start of the decade.

June 30 was a big day for the British electricity sector in more ways than one, as it was also the first day ever when more than half of the country’s electricity was supplied by renewable energy sources – with 39% coming from wind energy, 9% from solar, 8% from biomass, and 1% from hydroelectricity.

“Britain’s power system is decarbonising at a faster rate than any other country in the world,” said Imperial College London’s Dr Iain Staffell, who worked independently via Imperial Consultants to analyse Drax’s Electric Insights data. “We have spent more than half the summer without a single coal power station turned on, and renewables are breaking new records all the time.

“As a result, our power stations are producing 100 million tonnes less CO2 per year than they were just six years ago. The amount of carbon saved is equivalent to taking every single car and van off the UK’s roads, or what would be produced if every single person in the UK flew to Beijing and back.

The records are, obviously, all intertwined, as it is the increase in renewable electricity generation which is helping to reduce emissions. Drax, the UK’s biggest renewable power generator, recorded a 52% reduction in its emissions over the first half of 2019 compared to the same period a year earlier, with 94% of the power produced at Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire being renewable [Drax used to be the country's largest coal power station].