In 1872, Queen Victoria was on the throne, the US had just elected Ulysses Grant to a second term, and the United Kingdom was producing greenhouse gases at the same rate it produced them in 2025.
That comparison, from a new analysis published this week by **Carbon Brief**, is one of the most striking data points in recent climate history. In 2025, UK greenhouse gas emissions fell to **364 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e)** — a 2.4% decrease from the previous year, and the lowest level since 1872.
The reasons are concrete, measurable, and worth celebrating.
**Coal: A 400-Year Low**
The most dramatic number in the Carbon Brief analysis isn't even the headline figure. It's the coal figure.
UK coal use in 2025 fell to levels last seen in the **1600s** — before the Industrial Revolution, before the age of steam, before Britain's coal industry existed in any modern sense. Coal use was cut in half from the previous year, driven by two things:
🏭 **The last coal-fired power station in the UK closed in September 2024.** Britain became the first G7 nation to completely exit coal power generation. The final plant — Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire — closed after 57 years of operation. The grid that day ran entirely on gas, nuclear, wind, solar, and imports.
🏗️ **The UK steel industry contracted**, reducing industrial coal demand further.
The result: coal, which powered the British Empire and the world's first industrial economy, is now effectively gone from the UK's energy system. Not reduced. Gone.
**Gas: Lowest Since 1992**
Gas use also fell significantly in 2025 — to its **lowest level since 1992**. The contributing factors include:
- Continued growth in wind and solar generation - More energy-efficient buildings - The slow but accelerating rollout of heat pumps replacing gas boilers - A relatively mild winter reducing heating demand
Gas remains the UK's largest single energy source, and decarbonising it fully remains the hardest challenge in the UK's climate programme. But the direction of travel is clear.
**Oil: Down Despite More Cars on the Road**
Perhaps the most telling statistic: **oil use fell by 0.9%**, even as total car traffic *increased*.
The explanation is electric vehicles. In 2025, the UK added more than **700,000 new electric vehicles, vans, and plug-in hybrids** to its roads. EVs now represent a substantial share of new car sales, and their cumulative effect on oil demand is beginning to show in the national statistics.
Oil consumption hasn't peaked yet — but 2025 showed for the first time that you can have more driving and less oil, because the new vehicles aren't burning any.
**54% Below 1990, GDP Nearly Doubled**
The headline summary from Carbon Brief:
- **UK emissions are now 54% below their 1990 levels** - **UK GDP has nearly doubled over the same period**
This is the direct rebuttal to the argument that climate action is economically damaging. Britain has cut its greenhouse gas emissions by more than half in 35 years — and its economy has grown by almost 100% during the same period.
The two things did not trade off against each other. They happened simultaneously.
Emissions have now fallen in **27 of the 36 years** since 1990 — a record of sustained improvement that few countries can match.
**How We Got Here**
The UK's emissions trajectory is the result of deliberate policy choices compounding over time:
⚡ **Energy market reforms** that made renewable electricity cost-competitive with gas 🌬️ **Massive wind farm buildout** — the UK now has some of the world's largest offshore wind capacity ☀️ **Solar expansion** — from near zero in 2010 to a substantial share of summer generation by 2025 🚗 **EV incentives and mandates** — the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate requires rising percentages of new car sales to be electric 🏠 **Building standards** — the Future Homes Standard, effective 2025, requires all new homes to be built with heat pumps and solar panels 🏭 **Industrial efficiency** — higher carbon prices and competitive pressure have driven efficiency improvements across manufacturing
None of these individually transformed the picture. Together, over decades, they did.
**What Remains**
The Carbon Brief analysis is not a victory lap — it's a progress report. Fifty-four percent below 1990 is significant. It is not enough.
The UK's legally binding commitment under the Climate Change Act is **net zero by 2050**, with intermediate carbon budget targets along the way. The current trajectory is broadly consistent with meeting those budgets, but the pace of progress in some sectors — particularly home heating and heavy industry — will need to accelerate.
The hardest part isn't behind us. But 2025 is proof that the approach works: that policy, technology, and economics can align, that emissions can fall while the economy grows, and that the industrial revolution's legacy in the country where it started is no longer written in coal.
The 1870s called. We've taken it from here. 🇬🇧🌱
*Sources: Carbon Brief (Analysis: UK emissions fall 2.4% in 2025 as coal hits 400-year low) · BusinessGreen · Good Good Good (Week of March 14, 2026) · UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero · DESNZ 2025 energy statistics*
