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Decarbonising the UK electricity mix is vital to achieving the national target of 80% reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, relative to a 1990 baseline. Much work so far has focused only on costs and GHG emissions ignoring other sustainability issues. This paper goes beyond to assess the life cycle sustainability of different electricity scenarios for the UK, extending to 2070. The scenarios include the main technologies relevant to the UK: nuclear, gas, coal with and without carbon capture and storage (CCS), wind, solar photovoltaics and biomass. Three levels of decarbonisation are considered and the implications are assessed for techno-economic, environmental and social impacts on a life cycle basis. The results show that decarbonisation is likely to increase electricity costs despite anticipated future cost reductions for immature technologies. Conversely, sensitivity to volatile fuel prices …