Firstly, if the rest of the world is going to be inspired by the decommissioning of Britain’s coal-fired plants there is little sign of it yet… Britain may have managed to displace coal with a combination of gas and wind power, with a small contribution from solar (4.9 per cent last year), but it is not a practical course for many countries which do not have easy access to gas supplies, and who would have no other practical means of coping with the intermittency of wind and solar. The advantage of coal is that it is very easy to transport, store and stockpile.

“The Hinkley Point project, which is already under construction, will supply electricity that is far more expensive than green energy. If it is done well, the German model combining the phasing out of nuclear energy and coal could be more favourable. But the top priority is that the newly industrialising and developing countries also switch to phasing out coal as quickly as possible. First and foremost China, which is still building new power plants. If they don’t change course, the joy over the end of the coal era in the UK will be of little use.”

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