Last week, the global energy think tank Ember released data showing that for the first time, renewables had surpassed coal to become the world’s largest source for electricity generation. This is proof positive that the UK is setting the right path on clean power.
We have got to this point in no small part due to early decisions. Back in the 2000s, Britain played a leading role in ramping up renewable power. Then Energy Secretary Ed Miliband chose to shift the UK’s energy policy away from the development of large gas-powered generators and towards renewables.
These early decisions have turned the UK into a genuine global leader in clean power. This time last year, I wrote [1] about how the realisation of the UK’s first clean energy mission had led to Britain becoming the first major economy to completely remove coal from its electricity mix. The data published last week shows that the rest of the world is following this path.
This change has been driven by more than a desire to protect the planet, important though this is. Due to new innovations, many developed here in the UK, it has quickly become far more cost-effective to produce electricity from renewables than from fossil fuels.
Fossil fuels became prevalent because they allowed us control over how we use energy. Coal, and later oil and gas allowed economic planners to produce energy at a time and place of their convenience, whereas today, the underlying economics of energy has changed.
Over the past two hundred years, we have extracted the world’s easy to reach fossil fuels, meaning we are now having to dig deeper for coal or drill further offshore for oil and gas. By contrast, we have got much, much better at running renewable electricity networks. Rather than extracting harder to reach fossil fuels, we can now build out complex systems that allow us to use cheap and abundant sources of energy, especially sunlight and wind.
This is the great growth opportunity of our generation. Analysis last year by ECIU [2] found that net zero industries were growing at nine times the rate of the rest of the economy. This has the potential to create good, well-paid jobs in every part of the UK. At Labour conference, the once-again Energy Secretary Ed Miliband announced [3] that government now expect to create a further 400,000 jobs in net zero industries this decade.
If you want evidence that the economics of renewable energy have become unstoppable, look at Texas. Despite its long attachment to the oil industry, Texas is now a hotbed for renewables. The deep-Republican state has been producing more electricity from renewables than coal for more than a year, making it no surprise that an effort last summer to block further renewable expansion failed.
This does not mean we should be complacent. This is something the UK can and should lead on. Back when they used to talk about the UK being world leading, the Tories were more than happy to champion the UK’s expertise in building clean power grids. During COP26, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, alongside Narendra Modi of India, launched the Green Grids Initiative [4], to share the UK’s expertise in building out clean power around the world.
We should celebrate our clean power achievements. As our current clean power mission moves the UK to become the world’s first major economy with a clean power electricity system, we should continue to champion the rise of technologies we have helped the world to harness.
References
[1] LabourList, “Government news: Labour’s coal & energy mission,” 2024, https://labourlist.org/2024/09/government-news-labour-coal-energy-mission/
[2] ECIU, The UK’s Net Zero Economy 2024, https://eciu.net/analysis/reports/2024/the-uks-net-zero-economy-2024
[3] Guardian, “Labour must fight rightwing billionaires undermining net zero, says Ed Miliband,” The Guardian, 29 September 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/29/labour-must-fight-right-wing-billionaires-undermining-net-zero-ed-miliband
[4] UK Government, “UK and India launch new grids initiative to deliver clean power to the world,” https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-and-india-launch-new-grids-initiative-to-deliver-clean-power-to-the-world
