Foratom Says Nuclear Will Be Seen As ‘Indispensable Tool’ In Fight Against Climate Change

21 Dec (NucNet): The Brussels-based trade association for the nuclear energy industry is convinced that nuclear energy will once again form a fundamental part of a forthcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report as an “indispensable tool” for tackling climate change. Foratom said that as a result of the COP21 UN Paris Agreement to limit global average temperature increases to below two degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial period by 2100, the IPCC will produce a technical report by 2018 on the possible solutions which should be used to limit the effects of climate change. Foratom said the IPCC acknowledged in its fifth report from April 2014 that nuclear energy offers the advantage of being a low carbon technology. Meanwhile, David Shropshire, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency delegation at COP21, said the Paris agreement neither defines energy technologies as low carbon, nor specifies any energy technology. Instead, it describes “technology” in terms of research, development and demonstration, transfer, capacity building, needs assessment, action plans and project ideas, mechanisms, centres, committees and networks. “All these are applicable to nuclear,” Mr Shropshire said. “Consequently, all energy technologies, low-carbon and fossil, are on the table.”