The United Kingdom government has brought forward the deadline to phase out coal from its energy system by a whole year in a bid to drive down emissions and tackle climate change.

From 1st October 2024, Great Britain will no longer use coal to generate electricity, a year earlier than planned, country's Energy and Climate Change Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan announced on Wednesday.

The move is part of the UK government's ambitious commitments to transition away from fossil fuels and decarbonise the power sector in order to eliminate contributions to climate change by 2050.

The UK said it is leading by example in tackling climate change ahead of hosting the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) summit in Glasgow this November and called on all nations to accelerate the phase out of coal power.

Coal is one of the most carbon intensive fossil fuels and responsible for harmful air pollution. By eliminating its use in electricity generation, the UK can make sure it plays a critical role in limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees – a key aim of its COP26 presidency.

The UK has made huge progress in reducing the use of coal across the power sector, with coal accounting for only 1.8% of the UK’s electricity mix in 2020, compared with 40% almost decade ago.

"Coal powered the industrial revolution 200 years ago, but now is the time for radical action to completely eliminate this dirty fuel from our energy system. Today we’re sending a clear signal around the world that the UK is leading the way in consigning coal power to the history books and that we’re serious about decarbonising our power system so we can meet our ambitious, world-leading climate targets," said Trevelyan today.

The UK went 5,000 hours without coal-fired electricity in 2020, and earlier this year broke a new wind power record, with just over a third of the country’s energy coming from wind. The rise in the use of renewables thanks to competition, free enterprise and government incentives to kick start new technologies has in turn helped to drive down the cost of green energy, with coal power now more expensive in most countries.

In May, the G7 Climate and Environment Ministers agreed to end all new finance for coal power by the end of 2021 and to accelerate the transition away from unabated coal capacity and to an overwhelmingly decarbonised power system in the 2030s.

"The next decade will be make, or break, for our planet and the most powerful way we can make a difference is to end our reliance on coal," said COP26 President-Designate, Alok Sharma.