The UK’s carbon floor price very nearly doubled from £9.54 to £18.08 per tonne of CO2, raising the cost of a tonne of carbon for the country’s power plants to £23 when allowances on the European Union’s emissions trading system are factored in.
The move was made just as the European Commission released new figures showing greenhouse gas emissions covered by the EU’s ETS had dropped by 21% compared to 2005 levels last year, meeting a watershed target set for 2020, six years ahead of schedule.
The government’s figures released yesterday revealed that coal provided 24% of the UK’s electricity generation my major power producers, while gas provided 31.9% and nuclear 24.4%.
Major power producers’ wind generation spiked 61% due to increased capacity and higher wind speeds, while overall renewables were up 58% with a marked growth in biomass.
Low carbon share of electricity generation by major power producers was up 7.7 percentage points to 44.1%, which the government attributed to rises in renewables generation.
