End of an Era, Power of an Arc

History of coal use in the UK, ca. 1700-2024 (compiled by Carbon Brief and Paul Warde and published at Q&A: How the UK became the first G7 country to phase out coal power).

By Marcy Rockman, Lifting Rocks Climate and Heritage Consulting, for the SHA Climate Heritage Initiative

At the end of September this year, an historic point was reached: England turned off its last coal-fired power plant, ending a 142-year history of coal-fired power in the country.

There are many dynamics at work in this story. In the featured article, focus is on the people who worked at the Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant, which I think is important. What happens in climate change is inextricably linked to human action, so the observances they held, their care for the work they did, and where they may work next matters. To them, of course, but also to all of us, for this sort of event is where trajectories of history and present-day real-time meet. 

The Industrial Revolution began in England. There are several possible starting dates, a commonly cited one is the 1709 smelting of iron with coal-based coke by Andrew Darby at Ironbridge Gorge (see Carbon Brief history and illustration above). This led to mass production of iron and, by 1779, construction of the bridge that gave the Gorge its current name. I’m now reading Landscape of Industry: Patterns of Change in the Ironbridge Gorge, by Alfrey and Clark. As this study beautifully lays out, early steps of the Industrial Revolution were interwoven with the geology, topography, and prior patterns of settlement of the Gorge; industry would not have come to be in the same way anywhere else. 

The Iron Bridge in Ironbridge Gorge, view looking west along the Severn River (photo by Marcy Rockman, October 2016).

The article notes “(t)he UK was the first country to build a coal-fired power station. It is right that it is the first major economy to exit coal power.” For emissions’ sake, it must not be the last. Our capacity to put these events such as this one in historical context, to see them as part of history in the making, may be part of helping them happen.

Featured Link: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/sep/30/end-of-an-era-as-britains-last-coal-fired-power-plant-shuts-down

For a listing of all blog posts in this series, visit our Climate Heritage Initiative page.