World Nuclear Association: Nuclear power key in climate-change mitigation

World Nuclear Association (WNA) Director General  Agneta Rising said on Monday that nuclear generation will need to play a role in climate-change mitigation.

Currently, world leaders are gathered in Paris at the Climate Change Conference, also known as COP 21. Rising said nuclear energy is capable of providing affordable electricity with low-carbon emissions. The WNA has said that the avoidance of 60 billion tons of carbon dioxide over the past 50 years can be attributed to the use of nuclear power plants.

“To implement the goals of an ambitious COP 21 agreement, governments need to develop policies that encourage investment in low-carbon generation, especially nuclear energy,” Rising said. “We need 1,000 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity by 2050 to combat climate change. This will require effective regulation and markets that value low-carbon emissions and reliable supplies."

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (ICPP) said that to prevent a global average temperature rise from topping two degrees, an emissions reduction of approximately 80 percent is required by 2050. The NWA said the technology is available for this to be achieved and that countries such as Brazil, Sweden, Switzerland and France have reached low-carbon emission goals.

"France has shown that with nuclear energy, an affordable low-carbon generation mix is achievable,” Rising said. “COP 21 must deliver an agreement that helps us achieve a low-carbon emissions world."