The UK’s electricity was the cleanest ever in 2024, according to a new Carbon Brief analysis, with carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per unit falling by more than two-thirds in a decade.

In total, fossil fuels made up 29 per cent of the UK’s electricity in 2024, with renewables achieving 45 per cent and nuclear 13 per cent.

As a result, each unit of electricity generated in 2024 was associated with an average of just 124g of CO2, compared with a “carbon intensity” of 419gCO2 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in 2014.

Since 2014 the UK has managed an admirable reduction on carbon creation even as the overall economy grew, and planned interconnections, greater capacity of renewables, and potentially use of SMRs, will achieve even higher levels in future, whilst efficiencies will reduce load. However, storage remains a tricky issue yet to be solved.

National Energy System Operator (NESO) put advice to the incoming Labour government in November that plotted a pathway to clean power by 2030, concluding that it was “achievable”.
The analysis showed that overall systems costs should not increase for a clean power system. Other factors could reduce electricity bills in 2030, including a reduction in legacy policy costs (as contracts expire) and energy efficiency improvements. Government policy decisions could also reduce bills by 2030, but significant investment would be needed. NESO added: “With this investment Great Britain could also become a world leader in first-of-a-kind technologies.”

This is, happily, a view shared by the public, with two thirds of people wanting to see the UK become a clean energy superpower (64 per cent), and for the UK to make enough clean energy to export it to other countries (65 per cent). See full story below.

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