LONDON, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The coal used to generate electricity in Britain will be phased out by 2024, a year earlier than originally planned, the British government announced Wednesday.
In 2012, coal accounted for 40 percent of the British power generation, dropping to only 1.8 percent in 2020, the government said in a release.
The move, announced by Energy and Climate Change Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan, means that within just 10 years, Britain will have reduced the national power grid's reliance on coal from previously around a third to zero.
She noted that business competition and government incentives in part kicked start new technologies, helping to drive down the cost of green energy in the past several years.
The new deadline highlights Britain's intention to go further in cutting emissions to help tackle climate change, said the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
"The move is part of ambitious government commitments to transition away from fossil fuels and decarbonize the power sector in order to eliminate contributions to climate change by 2050," said BEIS in a statement from London.
The British government said it will introduce new legislation at the earliest opportunity to enable the new deadline to be met.
