atw - International Journal for Nuclear Power | 6.2023

atw Vol. 68 (2023) | Ausgabe 6 ı November
between nuclear technology, mitigation, adaptation,
sustainable development, and eradication of
poverty. Placing nuclear technology under PA 6.8 is
a matter of finding working partnerships and communicating
the different results of the partnership,
making sure that most or all the desiderata of that
Article are met. In the explicit call for a holistic approach,
corporations deploying nuclear technology
should be able to show how its employment permanently
changes sectors such as health, the economy,
education, security, or culture.
There is yet another approach for including nuclear
technology under PA 6.8. That Article can be understood
as a more flexible, “less strings attached”
alternative to PA 10/11. As mentioned above, the
interplay of the financial and technological provisions
of the Agreement are, in their implementation,
strongly determined by several constraints. PA 6.8
has none of these constraints. Instead, activities under
its umbrella can be deployed as agreed by the
participants, for example, in financing nuclear technology
or agreeing to research it.
In fact, one of the examples of the operationalization
of PA 6.8 showcased in a report commissioned
by the German ministry in charge of climate change
in 2021 is nuclear technology and cooperation in
financing and researching it. By the reasoning contained
there:
“Innovation and transformation are often intrinsically
linked with advances in international research.
The current Presidency proposal on the NMA forum
and work program encourages Parties and other
stakeholders to actively engage in research of NMAs
…. International research collaboration can also be a
non-market approach to cooperation in itself.
Many R&D processes rely on public funding, especially
in the absence of commercial research. Private
finance has played an important role in the development
of energy-efficient technologies and renewable
energies. However, there are also some emerging
technologies with substantial mitigation potential
that are not attractive to commercial research due
to their stage of development. Also, the development
of adaptation technologies has been lagging behind
the one of mitigation technologies. Therefore, the
combination of public finance from different states
in an international R&D program could be an efficient
means to roll out emerging adaptation and
mitigation technologies.
The focus on international research collaboration
could help to use limited public finance more
efficiently. The design of such a collaborative format
is decisive for its success. The multinational research
program on nuclear fusion (ITER) is an example of
best practice in this space. The ITER Agreement on
a multinational R&D program was signed in 2006
by China, the EU, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and
the United States.
The goal of this collaboration between 35 nations is
to prove the feasibility of nuclear fusion energy. For
this purpose, sizeable public resources of double-digit
billion USD have been combined. The members
of the agreement do not only share the costs of the
entire project, but also the trial results and intellectual
property generated throughout the project by
its staff members …. R&D efforts around the world
are efficiently coordinated to ensure the successful
integration and assembly of the one million components
the fusion reactor consists of and which have
been built by different members. [11] ”
This focus on research collaboration shown in the report
comes from its intention of showcasing existing
activities that would fit under PA 6.8, therefore, the
example of ITER. The US-American FIRST, Foundational
Infrastructure for Responsible Use of Nuclear
Technology, as well as the EU’s European SMR partnership,
could also be easily included in this list.
FIRST is even well-positioned to show how nuclear
technology can propel sustainable development and
the eradication of poverty since it explicitly addresses,
as pillars of the cooperation, the development of
workforce, stakeholder engagement, and regulatory
development (capacity building) [2] .
From the point of view of making the case for the
adequate inclusion of nuclear technology under PA
6.8, these examples, focusing primarily on financing
and transferring technology, bear the potential to
convince negotiators and parts of the broad public.
They show how international, non-market cooperation
is possible regarding nuclear. They elucidate
the holistic and integrated benefits of this technology.
They point to an alternative in the Agreement to
the constrained provisions of PA 10/11. To convince
negotiators, the activities need to demonstrate how
mitigation, adaptation, sustainable development,
and the eradication of poverty complement each
other in a virtuous circle around nuclear technology.
Note additionally that the same report [11] also outlines
significant possibilities for non-state actors
with regard to developing, financing, and governing
projects under PA 6.8, which, again, fits with nuclear
technology in which research facilities and corporations
can play a significant role in public-private
ENERGY POLICY, ECONOMY AND LAW 31
Energy Policy, Economy and Law
Nuclear Energy under Article 6.8 of the Paris Agreement ı Henrique Schneider