The UK’s Grid Decarbonisation: The Benefits are Now Visible.

For years we at Carbon Lens have been telling clients that moving towards net zero and significant emissions reduction would depend on the decarbonisation of the grid through increasing renewable energy sources. This has at times felt like a leap of faith, talking about future benefits, but here is a chart that tells a clear story:

UK electricity has become dramatically less carbon-intensive. In the early 2000s, generation of each kilowatt hour of grid electricity emitted roughly 0.45–0.50 kgCO₂e. By 2026, the figure is closer to 0.13 kgCO₂e/kWh. A circa 70% reduction in carbon emissions in 20 years. This is not a small technical adjustment. It is the result of a major shift in how the UK generates power. This is remarkable progress in reducing emissions nationally. Businesses will see their emissions, and those of their supply chain, fall accordingly.

Every unit of electricity used today produces 70% less carbon than it did 15 or 20 years ago. That strengthens the case for electrification: electric vehicles, heat pumps, electrically powered offices, factories and public buildings all become cleaner as the grid decarbonises.

The “Dash for Gas” in the 1990s reduced some coal dependence, but gas remained a fossil fuel and the UK has recently relied heavily on imported gas from sources such as Qatar. The larger change came through renewable energy policy, carbon pricing and the rapid growth of wind power. The Renewables Obligation in 2002 helped create the early market for renewable electricity. The Climate Change Act in 2008 gave the UK a legally binding emissions framework. Carbon Price Support made coal generation less competitive, while Contracts for Difference helped unlock investment in large-scale renewables, especially offshore wind.

The most symbolic moment came in 2024, when the UK’s final coal-fired power station closed. Coal had once been the foundation of the electricity system. It is now effectively gone from UK power generation. Renewables now supply more than half of UK electricity, with wind playing the leading role.

The falling carbon intensity shown in the chart shows that the move to renewable generation is no longer a future promise. It is already reducing the emissions associated with every kWh of electricity consumed in the UK.

“Why are we doing this if other countries are not?”

This is a common objection to which the answer is “They are”. Other countries are moving too, although not all at the same speed or in the same way.

China is the most complicated example. It is still the world’s largest coal user and has continued to build new coal power stations. But it is also building renewable electricity at a scale no other country can match. China has added huge volumes of wind and solar capacity because it needs to meet rising electricity demand, improve energy security and reduce dependence on imported fuels. New coal plants are justified as backup capacity for reliability, peak demand and regional supply concerns. China is not ignoring clean energy. It is trying to expand clean generation while managing the largest and fastest-growing electricity system in the world. This is also enabling them to develop world-leading technologies.

Eastern Europe also shows that the transition is not limited to wealthy Western economies. Countries that have historically relied heavily on coal, including Poland, Romania, Czechia and Bulgaria, are increasing renewables and planning coal phase-outs at different speeds. Progress is uneven, but the direction is clear.

Poland, still one of Europe’s largest coal users, increased the renewable share of its power generation from 15% in 2019 to 27% in 2023. Hungary increased its renewable share in power to 26%, helped by rapid solar deployment. Romania reached 50.4% renewable electricity generation in 2023, above the EU average, while Latvia reached 76.6%.

The transition is uneven. Poland remains heavily coal-dependent, Czechia has been slower to increase renewables, and some countries are relying heavily on gas or future nuclear projects. But the direction is still clear. Romania has committed to phasing out coal by 2032, Czechia by 2033, Bulgaria has communicated a 2038–2040 phase-out window, and Slovakia’s major coal plants had stopped burning coal by March 2024. Poland’s largest utility, PGE, has also announced the closure of the remaining coal-fired units at its Rybnik power plant by the end of 2025, reflecting the falling profitability and financing difficulty of coal generation.

Across the EU, the trend is no longer marginal. In 2024, renewables generated 47% of EU electricity, solar overtook coal for the first time, and total fossil generation fell to a historic low. More than half of EU member states now have either no coal power or coal contributing less than 5% of their electricity mix.

The United States is also not one single story. Federal politics are divided, but many states are moving quickly. California, New York, Washington, Vermont, Rhode Island, Iowa, Texas, South Dakota and others are all moving, although for different reasons. In some places the driver is climate law. In others it is cheap wind and solar. In others it is energy security, local economic development or reduced exposure to fossil fuel price volatility. California and New York have strong clean electricity targets. Washington State has a legally defined clean power pathway. Texas, despite being a major oil and gas state, is also a major wind power producer. Iowa gets a very high share of its electricity from wind. Some states are acting because of climate policy; others because renewables are now economically attractive for other purposes, for example, the production of sustainable fuels.

Clean electricity is no longer only an environmental issue. It is also about energy security, price stability, industrial competitiveness and reducing exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets as illustrated this year.