UK to Close Coal Power Plants by 2025

Britain remains committed to switching from coal-fired power plants to clean energy, a minister told parliament on Tuesday when asked whether the government was considering backtracking on a plan to close all coal-burning stations by 2025. "The government is committed to the transition from coal to clean energy," Nick Hurd, a junior minister in the business department, said in response to a question on whether the government was reconsidering its position. In November 2015, the government agreed to hold a consultation setting out proposals to close by 2025 all coal-fired power stations which are "unabated" - plants not equipped to capture and store their carbon emissions - and restrict their usage from 2023. Officials expect that because air pollution and climate change measures are making coal uneconomic, the most likely scenario is that all coal power plants could be closed even by 2022. But they also said that if the price of coal was low it was conceivable they would not close until 2030.