Coal-Free Fortnight: All It's Cracked Up To Be?

Recently the GB electricity supply system racked up its first coal-free fortnight. A cause for celebration one might think? Well, yes and no. Phasing out electricity generation by coal is certainly one step that has to be taken on the road to (hopefully) net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 so, yes, a small celebration is allowed. However, close inspection of the generation mix over that fortnight is not all encouraging. Some 45% of generation over the period came from gas. OK, it's less carbon intensive than coal but none-the-less plenty of CO2 will have been emitted from that source. Furthermore, some of the "renewable" generation was from biomass - mainly imported wood - which I'd argue is not truly renewable and has environmental damaging effects of its own. Taking a slightly wider perspective, renewables growth in the UK has slowed, if not stalled, and there don't appear to be any policy initiatives on the horizon to reverse that trend. Greening the electricity supply system should be the easy piece of the decarbonisation story. If we are failing on this tack what hope for the chemicals industry, for transport, for food production? So, put the champagne back on (long-term) ice.