UK greenhouse gas emissions are still falling

UK greenhouse gas emissions were down 5 per cent year-on-year in 2023 and down more than 50 per cent on 1990 levels. The biggest drivers of these reductions have been the shift away from coal to gas – as newly privatised electricity companies turned to a cheaper source of energy in the 1990s – and the more recent boom in renewables. The latest provisional figures are for territorial emissions produced within UK borders. Consumption emissions, which include those embedded in imports, tend to be higher. Look away from the power sector and the picture is less rosy. As Greenpeace notes, Margaret Thatcher’s heirs don’t have the policies in place to deliver necessary cuts to emissions from buildings or transport. Swapping gas boilers for electric ones and slashing the cost of public transport would help.