atw - International Journal for Nuclear Power | 01.2020

atw Vol. 65 (2020) | Issue 1 ı January
58
NUCLEAR TODAY
John Shepherd is a
freelance journalist
and communications
consultant.
Sources:
Green/EFA statement
https://bit.ly/
2sYvUoQ
Foratom comments
on taxonomy
https://bit.ly/
352Pf6A
Dr Angela Wilkinson
opinion
https://bit.ly/
2RvC6Pm
New Year Brings a Fresh Political Challenge
for a Champion of Climate Change
As you read this article, the Christmas decorations will have been packed away for another 12 months and some of us
will be wondering how we can keep to those new year resolutions we set for ourselves – perhaps rashly – in the dying
hours of 2019.
Resolutions are a great way to start the new year and even
though 2020 is already well under way, it’s not too late to
set goals for the year ahead. In fact, it’s imperative the
nuclear energy community resolves to take action in
defence of the industry in Europe in the face of a strident
push from its opponents.
The European Parliament elections of 2019 witnessed a
surge in support for groups including the Greens and that
new-found political muscle in Brussels is now being
harnessed to attack nuclear under the guise of environmental
concern.
As I sent this article off to the publisher, the Greens/
European Free Alliance grouping in the European
Parliament were celebrating a compromise on a proposed
framework to facilitate sustainable investment, known as
‘taxonomy’.
The taxonomy follows the European Commission’s
setting up in 2018 of a technical expert group on sustainable
finance. Tasks set for the group included helping the
Commission to develop an EU classification system
(dubbed the taxonomy) to identify environmentallysustainable
economic activities. This is in line with the
bloc’s goal of decarbonising its energy sector.
The EU said the guidelines released by the expert group
in June 2019 formed part of moves to ensure that the
financial sector “can play a critical role in transitioning to a
climate-neutral economy and in funding investments at
the scale required”.
According to the findings, nuclear does have the
credentials to help tackle climate change, but the guidance
questioned the technology’s suitability because of the
storage of nuclear waste.
Foratom, the voice of the European nuclear industry,
indicated that, in the case of nuclear, the focus on the
waste issue had been deliberately used to exclude nuclear
from the taxonomy. Foratom said the waste criteria did not
appear to have been applied in the same way for other
technologies and hoped future talks on the taxonomy “will
remain open and transparent, include real experts on the
various issues and focus on a fact-based, rather than an
ideological, debate”.
France has, sensibly, lobbied to keep nuclear in the
taxonomy. However, the Greens now say their compromise
will mean “any investment in coal cannot be considered
sustainable”. They say a “strengthened ‘no-harm’ test will
help avoid nuclear energy from being considered an
environmentally sustainable investment”.
According to the EU, the taxonomy is not set to be
implemented until the end of 2022, one year later than
initially proposed, which means battle lines have been
drawn in this latest twist in the fight for the future of
European energy policy.
Ironically, Germany, which had already joined fellow
EU states Austria and Luxembourg in opposing a role for
nuclear in the taxonomy, could yet save the day if nuclear’s
proponents box clever.
This is because natural gas could find itself excluded
from the taxonomy as being too emitting. This would hit
countries such as Germany, where power utilities and
others have invested in natural gas. Going forward, this
would make it harder to achieve emissions reductions. And
there is speculation that Germany could now have a vested
interest in seeing the taxonomy proposals scrapped for
that reason – using nuclear as a scapegoat.
Germany takes over the presidency of the EU’s Council
of Ministers for six months in July 2020, giving it a key role
in driving forward the Council’s work on EU legislation, so
the year ahead promises to be an interesting one!
But why is energy policy always driven by political
dogma rather than common sense?
According to the Paris-based International Energy
Agency, a range of technologies, including nuclear power,
will be needed for clean energy transitions around the
world. The IEA said “the key to making energy systems
clean is to turn the electricity sector from the largest
producer of CO 2 emissions into a low-carbon source that
reduces fossil fuel emissions in areas like transport, heating
and industry”.
And while the IEA said renewables are expected to
continue to lead, “nuclear power can also play an important
part along with fossil fuels using carbon capture, utilisation
and storage”.
Those who seek to remove nuclear from the array of
technologies the world needs to rely on would also do well
to heed the words of the newly-appointed secretary- general
and chief executive of the World Energy Council,
Dr Angela Wilkinson. She said recently: “Don’t let perfection
( ideology) become the enemy of the faster, deeper and
social affordability decarbonisation. There is no need to
reinvent the wheel – leverage technology and policy
innovation by encouraging countries to learn with and
from each other and increase the pace of learning by
doing.”
Wilkinson has also correctly pointed out that energy
transition is not a single issue and there is a need to “ manage
the connected challenges of energy security, energy equity
and affordability and environmental sustainability”.
Europe’s leaders should look across the Atlantic, to
where the heads of three provincial Canadian governments
have agreed to work together “to explore new, cutting-edge
technology in nuclear power generation to provide carbonfree,
affordable, reliable, and safe energy, while helping
unlock economic potential across Canada”.
The provinces of Ontario, New Brunswick and
Saskatchewan said in December 2019 that they were
committed to collaborating on the development and
deployment of “innovative, versatile and scalable” small
modular reactors in Canada.
Meanwhile, here in Europe, there is no time to lose in
preventing the Greens and their supporters in the
European Parliament from what can only be described as
an incredible act of self harm.
Nuclear is not a sacred cow to be protected at all costs.
But nuclear energy is, by any sensible measure, a key element
in the shield against climate change. Policies that
pander to political correctness over practical solutions to
tackling climate change deserve to be stopped in their
tracks.
Nuclear Today
New Year Brings a Fresh Political Challenge for a Champion of Climate Change ı John Shepherd