As we go to pixel Britain is reliant on electric energy to keep us from the chill and currently 45% of that energy is coming from gas, wind is supplying 32%, nuclear 5% and other sources are at the single digit percentage level. One of those sources being the last coal power plant at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, contributing some 3.4% to the nation’s electricity production, marking its busiest week of the year. Britain’s last coal station is scheduled to shut-down in September. Next winter there will be no coal power to fall back on…

This sacrifice by Britain – which has plenty of coal reserves – will make no real difference to global carbon emissions. In fact global power generation hit new highs in 2023. Coal-fired electricity generation increased last year in China, India, the Philippines, Turkey and Vietnam. Greta needs to go East.

If the wind were to be calmed today Britain would simply not have enough energy to meet demand. This will inevitably happen at some point. Building small nuclear reactors to replace coal-powered base demand should be an urgent priority – much more important than building migrant hotels in Rwanda for example. The inability of Britain to get on with industrial and infrastructure projects is pathetic. For example – and not entirely unrelated – Britain will soon be one of the few major advanced industrial economies without a large scale modern electric battery production sector. The demand is there, what is holding Britain back from getting on with building supply?