10 EU countries call on Brussels to label nuclear energy as green source

With the eyes of the world watching, French President Emmanuel Macron led an effort, joined by nine other European nations, to call on the European Commission to recognise nuclear power as a low-carbon energy source that should be part of the bloc's decades long transition to climate neutrality.

Making the case for nuclear energy as a "key, affordable, stable and independent energy sources" the writers argue that nuclear energy could protect EU consumers from being "exposed to the volatility of prices."

Nuclear energy accounts for over a quarter of the electricity produced in the European Union, and over 74% for France, which initiated the letter that was signed by Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania.

Over 90% of the EU's natural gas come from foreign importers, with Russia as the main producer. This great dependency has been credited as one of the main factors behind the rise in energy prices as well as supply insecurity.

"Supply tensions will be more and more frequent and we have no choice but to diversify our supply. We should pay attention not to increase our dependency on energy imports from outside Europe."

The signatories urge the Commission to include nuclear energy inside the EU green taxonomy, a technical guidebook that helps governments and investors to identify which projects respect the Paris Agreement and which ones are in breach of its climate goals.

Read more in Euro News' Led by France, 10 EU countries call on Brussels to label nuclear energy as green source, published December 10, 2021.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Brilliant thinkers, Capital reallocation, Carbon emissions, Carbon markets, Climate change, Climate policy, Environmental support for nuclear, Future of Energy, International support for nuclear, LINKS, Politicians supporting nuclear, Reduced ecosystem impacts

July 10, 2020

Nuclear power has a big role to play in the energy transition

Nuclear plants today provide 10% of the world's electricity, all of it carbon-free – that's almost twice the combined contribution of solar and wind. To meet the key energy goals of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the Paris Agreement has set a specific ambition for nuclear, targeting the doubling of present installed capacity by 2050. For the nuclear industry the challenge is double; it is about progressively replacing plants reaching the end of their lives, and adding new plants to the existing fleet. However, there is need for innovation.

Read more at: World Economic Forum: Nuclear power has a big role to play in the energy transition. Here's why.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Carbon negative, Climate innovation fund, Future of Energy, International support for nuclear, LINKS, Nuclear innovation

July 3, 2019

Michael Liebreich talks about nuclear power

Michael Liebreich, founder and senior contributor to BloombergNEF, takes a hard look at the decisions that we need to make about how we plan to transition our energy systems to eliminate emissions over the next 11 years and conducts what might be called a "come to Jesus" discussion with his readers, demanding that they review the data and get real about nuclear power.

First Liebreich provides some very compelling evidence that it would be utterly unrealistic to believe that wind and solar alone could grow at rates that are multiples of their historic rates in order to provide enough zero-carbon power to decarbonize the economy in the near term, even with their low prices.

Among the easiest, cheapest and most impactful actions nations can take to ensure their decarbonization pathway remain headed in the right direction—the "no brainer" decisions upon which any number of countries are already failing—would be to set an "overwhelming priority is to keep existing nuclear plants open."

Liebreich takes exception when it comes to the question of building new traditional nuclear power plants, and makes the case that the Gen III generation of plant designs won’t cut it on based upon economic grounds—given the failure of the industry to deliver Gen III projects on time or on budget. However, he is willing to be convinced that Gen IV nuclear, once developed, might be what we need assuming we can get these designs out within a reasonable time frame—something yet to be determined. But, given the likelihood that we will miss our targets, Liebreich calls for getting "serious about developing SMRs and researching the generation of nuclear technologies that might even follow them."

Read Michael Leibreich's "get real" talk in "Liebreich: We need to talk about nuclear power," published at BNEF.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Carbon emissions, Climate policy, Construction costs, Future of Energy, LINKS, Solving climate