I wonder if it's a similar effect like after the German reunification, but caused by Brexit instead? Total emissions for Germany as a whole dropped by around 35% during the 90's because the non-competitive East German industry was essentially shut down overnight. 35% emission drop looks great in headlines, but only if one ignores the economic side effects (of turning the lives of 16 million people upside down).
PS: looking at the graph the sharp downward turn already started in 2006, so probably not Brexit...
It really started with the "dash to gas" [1] in the nineties. We had gone through some painful labor disputes in the coal industry which the government was keen to avoid. Alongside that the generating industry was privatised. This encouraged a lot of investment in gas. Also we were getting a ton of grief from Norway about all the acid rain from sulphur which had to be dealt with [2].
The Tory government which has been in power since 2010 was somewhat sceptical about wind power and shut down new onshore development when they came in. Fortunately their coalition partner negotiated the continued development of offshore which has been huge since then.
Hi, sorry but how can the Tories have coalition partners? The UK has 3 major parties and the other 2 are generally the coalition, right? I'm not too familiar with UK politics.
Really two major parties. In 2010 neither of those parties gained enough seats in parliament to gain a majority so they formed a coalition with one of the minor parties which tipped the scales in their direction.
The system is somewhat archaic and well overdue reform but neither of the major parties wants that for obvious reasons.
PS: looking at the graph the sharp downward turn already started in 2006, so probably not Brexit...