COP28: around twenty countries call for tripling nuclear power by 2050, the Pope calls for a “turning point”

2023-12-02 12:48:42

China and Russia, major builders of nuclear power plants in the world today, are not among the signatories to this agreement. This Saturday morning, around twenty countries including the United States, France and the United Arab Emirates called, in a joint declaration at COP 28, to triple nuclear energy capacities in the world by 2050 by compared to 2020. The objective? Reducing dependence on coal and gas, one of the challenges of this COP. Its promoters see nuclear energy, which is modular and emits almost no greenhouse gases, as an incomparable means of producing virtuous and abundant electricity.

The announcement was made by John Kerry, the US climate envoy, in Dubai, along with several leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croco. Also among the signatories are Bulgaria, Canada, Finland, Ghana, Hungary, Japan, South Korea, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia , Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom. It is a “very strong message” to remove obstacles, commented the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, in an interview with AFP.

Triple the world’s nuclear capacities by 2050: at COP28, there are already around twenty countries supporting this objective.

See you in Belgium for the first Nuclear Summit in 2024. pic.twitter.com/oiWqQodY8k

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 2, 2023

An appeal to shareholders of international financial institutions

“The declaration recognizes the key role of nuclear energy in achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and in keeping the objective of limiting warming to 1.5°C within reach”, specifies this joint declaration . “We know from science, the reality of the facts and the evidence that we cannot achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 without nuclear power,” said John Kerry, from Dubai. The issue is also geopolitical. Romanian President Clausus Johannites explained that nuclear power represented for his country “a stable source of energy contributing to energy security and decarbonization”.

To achieve this objective, the signatory countries called on the shareholders of international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, to include nuclear power in their financing. “There are statutory provisions, sometimes in certain international credit institutions, which exclude nuclear power. I think that is completely obsolete,” declared the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi.

Obviously, this announcement is far from unanimous. Some environmental defenders always emphasize the risks of accidents, the question of waste in the very long term or even the high costs of nuclear power.

Pope calls for accelerating “ecological transition”

Pope Francis also called this Saturday on the participants in COP 28 in Dubai for “a turning point” with a view to achieving “a decisive acceleration of the ecological transition”. The speech of the pope, who had to give up coming in person to Dubai because of bronchitis, was read by the Vatican’s number two, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.

“Let this COP be a turning point: let it demonstrate a clear and tangible political will, leading to a decisive acceleration of the ecological transition,” he said. And this “through forms which have three characteristics: that they are effective, restrictive and easily controllable. That they be implemented in four areas: energy efficiency, renewable sources, the elimination of fossil fuels and education for lifestyles less dependent on them.”

“Please: let’s move forward, let’s not go back,” urged Francis, who since his election in 2013 has made the defense of the environment a leitmotif of his pontificate, to the point of dedicate in 2015 his encyclical “Laudato si” (“Praise be to you”), a 200-page manifesto for an “integral ecology”. Francis published a new text on climate on October 4, entitled “Laudate Deum” (“Praise God”), which calls on the great powers to abandon fossil fuels. And this when the objectives of reducing carbon emissions seem increasingly difficult to achieve.