Climate crisis: Johnson announces a 68% emission reduction by 2030 for the UK
Interview.Hugh Elliott, British Ambassador to Spain: "Climate change has to be above ideologies"
The United Kingdom has set a new record for wind energy, which last Saturday reached 50.7% of the country's electricity supply for more than 24 hours in a row.
The winds of up to 160 kilometers per hour from storm Bella were decisive for the historic milestone, although in August it had already reached 60% of the electricity cake for an hour and at the beginning of December the generation "peak" was reached with 17 , 3 gigawatts.
"2020 has been a key year in the transformation of our electrical system,"
said Rob Rome, expert of the National Grid Operator System (NGESO, for its acronym in English).
"April was the record for solar power generation, April-July we had the longest period without coal and now we have set the record for wind. We are changing the nature of power in the British Isles."
Together, wind and solar energy have gone from 23% to 29% of the total energy pie in the last year
, while electricity generated with natural gas and coal has fallen from 46% to 36%.
The drop in energy demand and the decline in transport due to landfills have meanwhile resulted in
a 13% drop in CO2 emissions
in the UK (surpassed only by France with 15%).
However, the decline in "carbon intensity" met with an unexpected counterpoint in August and September, when lower wind conditions and greater than usual cloud cover forced dependence on fossil fuels to increase in midsummer.
Zero emissions in 2050
"One of the great challenges to reach the goal of zero emissions in 2050 will be to make our electricity system less dependent on when the wind blows or when the sun shines," warns Steve Jennings, from the PwC consultancy.
Speaking to
The Guardian
, Jennings warns of the importance that the fall in the cost of batteries and the increase in energy storage capacity will have in the next decade.
In his 10-point "green recovery" plan,
Prime Minister
Boris Johnson anticipated that wind energy will be able to supply 18 million British homes by 2030, with the goal of reaching 40 gigawatts, thanks mainly to the extra boost from turbines off the north coasts of England and Scotland.
The UK was the first G7 country to set the "zero emissions" target by 2050 and has raised its reduction commitment to 68% by 2030, paving the way as the host country for COP26 scheduled for November 2021 in Glasgow. .
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Climate crisis The EU raises the reduction of polluting emissions from 40 to 55% by 2030
Climate crisis Johnson goes beyond the EU and announces a 68% reduction in emissions by 2030 for the UK
Climate crisis 2020 will be one of the three hottest years on record
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