One hundred and forty-two years after the world’s first coal power plant opened on London’s Holborn Viaduct, the UK’s last operational coal-fired power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar will begin the process of decommissioning.
Inevitably, this will be a difficult day for the people who work at Ratcliffe, and an emotional moment for many across our country’s industrial heartlands.
Coal powered the UK’s economic might. Mines helped to build and sustain communities and, for generations, miners were the backbone of the UK’s industrial strength.
But we have known for decades that, both economically and environmentally, the coal industry was not sustainable.
Despite the decline in coal mining in the 1970s and 1980s, and the increasingly damaging impacts of climate change at home and around the world, when I became Energy Secretary coal remained a stubbornly large part of our energy mix.
However, because previous governments had rightly decided not to proceed with building new coal power stations, we had an ageing coal fleet with several plants approaching retirement. We had also put a price on carbon emissions from electricity, making coal increasingly uneconomic compared to gas, nuclear, and renewable energy.
Letting the lights go out is fatal for governments. So before making my decision, officials in the department worked intensively to show that the phase-out could be achieved without jeopardising security of supply.
The Ratcliffe closure is the final step for coal power in the UK, and another vital step forward in our transition to affordable, secure, home-grown clean energy.
And it marks the early delivery of a promise I made as Secretary of State: that the UK would phase out coal by 2025.
That announcement was rooted in proper Conservative values: security; economic competence; environmental stewardship; and intergenerational responsibility.
It respected the important Conservative principle that the Government’s role in the energy system is to set the right framework, to ensure the market, rather than the state, provides secure, cost-efficient energy, in a system where competition keeps costs low for families and businesses.
That announcement – the first of its kind – not only enabled the UK to show genuine global leadership as the Paris Agreement was reached, but has enabled us to cut emissions faster than any advanced economy.
The policy achieved plaudits from across the political spectrum and from environmental groups, who are typically hard for Conservative ministers to please, showing there can be a political upside in ambitious climate policy.
The share of coal in our power generation has reduced from 40 per cent to near zero. In the same period, wind energy generation has increased from eight per cent of national share to 30 per cent, and clean energy now generates almost half of all the power we need.
The Ratcliffe closure concludes coal power’s final chapter in our national story, but as a result of the decisions made and implemented by successive Conservative governments, the next chapter – which sets the UK as a world leader in clean power innovation, jobs and generation – is already being written.
As party members gather in Birmingham for the first party conference after a difficult election, they will have an important opportunity to remind the leadership candidates vying for their votes that they are proud of our environmental legacy.
The Conservative Party has always understood the importance of leaving behind a world that is better than the one we inherited. This includes passing on to our children and grandchildren a planet that is habitable and prosperous.
Leading the world in clean energy and climate action is not just a matter of environmental stewardship, but of national security and economic opportunity. In short, it is about putting our Conservative values into action.
First published by i Paper. Amber Rudd is the former Member of Parliament for Hastings and Rye.
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