GLASGOW: For more than two decades, promoters and purveyors of nuclear energy felt shunned at United Nations climate change conferences.
At the COP26 summit underway in Glasgow, however, they have been welcomed with open arms, the UN’s top nuclear regulator told AFP.
The spectre of Chernobyl and Fukushima, along with the enduring problem of nuclear waste, kept energy generated by splitting atoms on the sidelines, even if that energy was virtually carbon-free.
But as the climate crisis deepens and the need to transition away from fossil fuels becomes urgent, attitudes may be shifting.
“Nuclear energy is part of the solution to global warming, there’s no way around it,” said Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in an interview.
It already accounts for a quarter of “clean” – that is, carbon-free – energy worldwide, and Grossi said this COP is the first where it has “had a seat at the table”.
“The winds are changing.”
To have even a 50-50 chance of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – the threshold for dangerous tipping points that could trigger runaway warming – global greenhouse emissions must be slashed by almost half within a decade, scientists say.
But things are still moving in the wrong direction: A report on Thursday said emissions in 2021 are approaching record levels.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned they could hit new heights by 2023.
That is helping refocus attention on nuclear.
“At the 2015 COP in Paris, nuclear wasn’t welcome,” said Callum Thomas, head of a recruitment firm for the nuclear industry, who was spotted at COP26 sporting a T-shirt saying “Let’s Talk Nuclear”.
“There was a belief it was not needed. Now many countries are looking at the feasibility, especially with the rise in gas prices.”
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