The United Kingdom’s relationship with coal has been going a bit stale for some time, and we’re now in the process of breaking it off once and for all. We had some good times, but it’s really time we started seeing other energy providers.

In fact we have been, behind coal power’s back. The full breakdown of our current energy usage (as of Q2 2015) is as follows:

UK energy use by fuel type Fuel Percentage of consumption Gas 30.2% Renewables 25.35% Nuclear 21.5% Coal 20.5% Oil and others 2.5%

Our relationship with coal has been in decline for some time, as this graph demonstrates. The mid-1980s dip is, I assume, related to the miners’ strikes of 1984-85:

It’s not us, it’s you, coal. Not only are you a limited commodity that will be exhausted eventually (if you wanted to be truly pedantic, you could argue that technically coal is “renewable” – it’s just that it takes several million years to renew, and we’re impatient enough to want it now), but burning coal is terrible for climate change. When coal is burned, CO2 is released into the atmosphere, warming the planet.

A cynic might point out that Britain’s announcement, made by Energy and Climate Change secretary Amber Rudd, was well timed for the best possible PR ahead of the Paris COP 21 climate summit, but it’s positive news for the planet all the same – even if it is a bit symbolic, for reasons I’ll get onto in a moment.

“It cannot be satisfactory for an advanced economy like the UK to be relying on polluting, carbon intensive 50-year-old coal-fired power stations,” Rudd said. “Our determination to cut carbon emissions as cost-effectively as possible is crystal clear, and this step will make us one of the first developed countries to commit to taking coal off our system.”

See related COP21: How 193 countries came to a “historical turning point” in the fight against climate change Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters: What happens to nuclear exclusion zones when humans leave? Mesmerising and harrowing map shows every major nuclear explosion in history Fabulous, and few would argue that moving away from ageing coal power plants is forward-looking, but the problem is what makes up the shortfall? Looking back to the table above will give you a clue of what is going to plug the gap in the short term: gas.

Burning gas is only renewable in the same way coal is: if you have several million years to hang around, then sure it’s renewable. It’s also better for the planet than burning coal, but it’s still a contributor to global warming. Or, as Friends of the Earth campaigner Simon Bullock put it: “Switching from coal to gas is like an alcoholic switching from two bottles of whisky a day to two bottles of port.”

Green MP Caroline Lucas kept the drinking analogy going, saying: “This switch from coal to gas is like trying to go dry by switching from vodka to super-strength cider – it entirely fails to seriously address the real challenge at hand.”

As The Guardian points out, there’s no plans in place to wind down these private gas power plants post 2030, when Britain is intending to be virtually carbon free in its energy production.

So what about renewables? The government has already slashed subsidies for solar power, and wind is due to follow next year too. This means nuclear and gas will have to work extra hard to make up the difference, and there is a caveat that says that these coal plants will only be closed if other energies make up the shortfall. To be fair to them, this does make sense, but it also makes this a fairly eye-catching, but ultimately quite empty, statement of intent.

Hopefully this type of smoke and mirrors won’t be the order of the day in Paris in just under two weeks’ time. When the aim of the summit is for every nation to voluntarily give up some of its economic marbles, however, you’d better believe some will be doing their darndest to look keen, while still keeping a stash of cat’s-eyes.

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Images: Oatsy40, Ben Sutherland, and Department of Energy and Climate Change, used under Creative Commons