The Economist featured a very interesting article in its latest issue. It appears that Britain leads the pack in terms of reductions in carbon emissions since 1990. The country is close to shutting down its coal-generating capacity almost entirely. The article traces how Margaret Thatcher might have actually started the demise of Britain's coal industry, by cracking down on coal miners unions! The US does not do very well in CO2 emissions reductions in comparison, but it is noteworthy that CO2 emissions in the US are down from their peak, and almost back to the 1990 level. One can read good or bad news in these indicators, depending on one's perspective.
The data in the article will come in handy when we discuss climate policy in Module 10.
(Hat Tip: Marginal Revolution; The Guardian provides a very funny follow-up)
I enjoyed the article, but I tend to lean on the negative indicators of the article. It is almost happenstance that the electricity of the grid in Britain has no coal because of the breaking up of unions. While it is convenient for Boris Johnson to try and claim to be a leader in the climate change space, the country has a massive need to update their infrastructure to lean off of natural gas. They haven't really done much in setting example of successful energy migration.
Due to the availability and cost of turning natural gas into a liquid then re-gassing the liquids in Britain, the country does have a large incentive to turn to renewables - their natural gas prices per megawatt hour is double that of the US. It will also be interesting to read how country's like Japan react after their natural gas this year shot up to 10x the price is the US.
Lastly - will be interesting to see fossil fuel demand once vaccines hit a high level. I do believe the age of coal is over, but new expectations reported by several oil and gas companies show that the record high for fossil fuels is now expected to be in the 2030's.
Posted by: Will Regan | 03/03/2021 at 11:37 PM
Very interesting article and I agree with Will, Britain has a lot of work to do in energy migration. Yet, I am more optimistic because of its recent efforts around the shift in power generation. The region is heavily investing in nuclear and hydrogen power and plans to phase out all coal-fired energy generation by 2025 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Of course, it will be interesting to track any alterations that come up due to reopening, as well as the optimism shown by global oil & gas corporations.
Posted by: Tanjeet Sehgal | 03/07/2021 at 10:37 AM