Ben Caldecott

June 2016

The Government has announced that it will phase out the use of coal in electricity generation by the mid-2020s, making the UK the first country to use coal for electricity generation and now the first developed country to phase it out completely. Since the announcement, however, there has been concern about the implications for the UK’s energy security as coal is removed from the grid.

This report analyses the impact of the coal phase-out on the power system, the demand for gas, the UK’s emissions targets and households bills. The lights will stay on. In fact, the report argues that is feasible and desirable to phase-out coal earlier than currently planned.