2024-03-03 06:02:00
About twenty countries, including the United States, France, the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates, called on Saturday to triple global nuclear energy capacity by 2050 compared to 2020. This is necessary to reduce dependence on gas and coal, say them in a joint statement.
It was John Kerry, the American climate envoy, who announced this at the climate summit in Dubai, accompanied by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and French President Emmanuel Macron.
In addition to the US, France, the Netherlands and the Emirates, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Ghana, Hungary, Japan, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, South Korea and the United Kingdom signed the explanation. Notable absentees are China and Russia, the two largest builders of nuclear power plants in the world.
Carbon neutrality
In the statement, the signatories say they recognize the role of nuclear energy in achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and meeting the target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. “We know based on the science and facts that without nuclear power we cannot achieve carbon neutrality by 2050,” Kerry said.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis explained that for his country, nuclear energy is “a stable energy source that contributes to energy security and decarbonization.”
In fact, the World Bank hasn’t financed a single nuclear project since 1959. “So I think and hope that things will change,” Grossi said.
Setbacks
The next step is to build reactors, but some projects have been delayed for more than a decade due to industrial setbacks. Some environmentalists believe those delays will leave them too late to meet the climate challenge.
But those setbacks do not disqualify nuclear energy as a whole, Grossi says. Using the failures of certain projects to devalue nuclear power would be “a mistake,” he says.
The industry is betting heavily on small modular reactors (SMRs), which are less powerful and easier to build, to ensure the development of production capacity in new countries.
Proponents see nuclear energy, which is adaptable and emits virtually no greenhouse gases, as a good way to produce abundant electricity. Opponents point to the risks of accidents, the waste problem and the high costs. (Belga)
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