Power & Operations

IAE, IAEA warn that climate challenge would be much harder without nuclear

October 12, 2020, 12:01PMANS Nuclear Cafe

Birol

Grossi

“Given the scale and urgency of the climate challenge, we do not have the luxury of excluding nuclear from the tools at our disposal,” the leaders of the International Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote in an op-ed article posted on the CNN website last Friday.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the IAE, and Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the IAEA, said that the COVID-19 crisis not only delivered an unprecedented shock to the world economy, it also underscored the scale of the climate challenge the world faces: Even in the current deep recession, global carbon emissions remain unsustainable.

They said it: “If the world is to meet energy security and climate goals, clean energy must be at the core of post–COVID-19 economic recovery efforts,” the op-ed stated. “Strong growth in wind and solar energy and in the use of electric cars gives us grounds for hope, as does the promise of emerging technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture. But the scale of the challenge means we cannot afford to exclude any available technologies, including nuclear power—the world's second-largest source of low-carbon electricity after hydropower.”

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ans nuclear cafeclimate changecnncovid-19iaeiaeanuclear energy
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