📢ANALYSIS: UK emissions fell 3.6% in 2024 to lowest since 1872 🏭Coal lowest since 1666, when Great Fire ravaged London 🚗EVs pushed oil down despite more traffic, saving £1.7bn 🌇Gas down on "cleanest ever" power 📈📉Since 1990, CO2 -54% / GDP +84% https://t.co/mkgl8h2bqc 1/9

Thanks to Ember for the whizzy widget https://t.co/aQ0ZqDIkzY Link to Bloomberg story https://t.co/egGYsmmY81 8/8

3) And if we add social cost of carbon to the cost of a new gas plant… …then we're talking more like £150-180/MWh (!) Ouch. Bit different to £55/MWh. 7/8

3) Of course, the other big thing Coutinho is ignoring here is CO2 prices At current UK CO2/gas prices, without paying for the plant, gas is £80/MWh But if we based it on actual CO2 damages (social cost of carbon) it would be more like £100/MWh, again summer gas prices 6/8

2) If UK goes for gas (& nuclear?) instead of renewables, presumably as Coutinho favours, then we'd need new gas plants to meet rising demand from EVs, data centres, etc… …and NEW gas plants would be more like £105+/MWh *excl CO2 price*, even at summer prices for the gas 5/8

2) Coutinho's £55/MWh is just the cost of the gas to generate electricity, which assumes that the power plant itself comes for free That would be nice But gas plants do cost money to build – and that cost has been soaring Per Bloomberg, CAPEX has gone up >200% (!) 4/8

1) conveniently, Coutinho has picked price data for August 2025, in the summer, when gas prices are always lower indeed, last winter, the equivalent figure would have been £86/MWh, see pic – and prices reached £260/MWh in energy crisis 3/8

The UK Conservatives have pledged to scrap the UK's Climate Change Act, as well as carbon pricing on electricity. They have not said what they would do instead. So shadow energy sec claims gas power would only cost £55/MWh without CO2 pricing… …but omitted a few details 2/8

FACTCHECK: Claire Coutinho claims UK gas power only costs £55/MWh… …but she is ignoring a few small details: 🤫 Gas prices always rise in winter 🤫 Gas plants cost money to build 🤫 CO2 causes economic damages THREAD with receipts 1/8

Meanwhile, back when the Conservatives played a constructive role in UK climate politics… https://t.co/LV0S53b3H6 2/2

So have I got this right? 1️⃣Conservatives want to scrap UK Climate Change Act 2️⃣They claim to believe "climate change is real", but won't say what they'd do about it 3️⃣ They'd scrap CO2 pricing, economists' favourite option 4️⃣Dissenters are ideological "fools" 1/2

So there we have it, the UK Conservative party wants to subsidise fossil-fuel burning, by getting rid of carbon pricing on electricity generation (a carbon price of zero is an implicit subsidy, due to "all the extra costs" of global warming, as any sane economist will tell you)

FACTCHECK: What the Climate Change Act actually means for the UK – and what is a load of old nonsense Enjoyed putting this together with colleagues, inc learning new things about its fascinating backstory Feat. OG authors of the Act & more https://t.co/LV0S53bBwE

Meanwhile, back in the real world 2/2

This article by Sebastian Payne, Times columnist, leader writer and wannabe politician, is so very revealing * does not know last auction got >6GW of wind * thinks AR5 issues included grid constraints * invokes cheaper-than-renewable energy, but won't name it Mere details! 1/2

@SebastianEPayne ?

A question for Times columnist Sebastian Payne: What is this cheaper source of "energy" that you speak of? The world's energy experts would like to know…

Thank you to everyone who joined our webinar on China’s new climate pledge 🎙️ Thanks also to our panelists: @LiShuo_GP @laurimyllyvirta @RynaCui @_AN_Patel @DrSimEvans If you missed the webinar, you can watch it in full and read key takeaways here ⬇️ https://t.co/0GP71c4lM8

PS if you're wondering how 87 hours in 2025 is twice as often as ~63 hours in 2024, I encourage you to check today's date. 7/7

Thanks to the Times for covering our analysis (Extra credit to whichever editor managed to manufacture a negative headline out of this story, I think this demonstrates a truly special talent) https://t.co/jwDzzWGB6r 6/7

The National Energy System Operator has a separate target to run the GB grid without fossil fuels for at least 30 minutes, before the end of 2025 NESO told CB it was "confident" of hitting "zero-carbon operation", most likely in Q4 We'll be watching closely 5/7