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Foratom has welcomed the European Council's decision to remain technology neutral in its strategy on financing sustainable growth and the transition to a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy, but it urges the European Commission to establish a group with expertise in nuclear life-cycle technologies to advise on its EU-wide classification system, or 'taxonomy', the implementation of which has been postponed by two years.

As world leaders meet at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York this week, and the World Meteorological Organisation and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change publish new reports, Agneta Rising, director general of ¶¶Òõpro, stresses that nuclear power is the "unsung hero" in global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

The Australian Workers Union has told a federal government roundtable event that it supports the lifting of the country's ban on nuclear energy. The union is nation's oldest and largest 'blue-collar' trade union, having more than 100,000 members.
 

The power sector supports the European Commission's goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the EU economy by 2050, the association of European electricity generators, Eurelectric, said. However, it has called for six "critical enablers" to be put in place to achieve this.

Energy ministers from across Central Asia today committed their countries to collaborating on meeting the United Nations' seventh Sustainable Development Goal, which pledges 'affordable and clean energy' by 2030. The meeting is the first time they have come together to discuss the region's common energy challenges.

Countries embarking on nuclear energy programmes for the first time or expanding their programmes after a long period without construction face integrated challenges, representatives from emerging and expanding nuclear countries have said. These challenges include the development of human resources as well as financial and political considerations.

Nuclear and renewable generation should be used in combination to make the most of their synergies in integrated systems to help the world meet carbon reduction goals and limit temperature rise, leaders from governmental and non-governmental organisations and industry said yesterday. Innovative nuclear technologies will play their part in integrated systems alongside renewables, with combined uses of heat and power, hydrogen production, desalination and industrial decarbonisation.

The European Commission must acknowledge the "critical role" that nuclear energy has to play under its sustainable finance initiative, European nuclear trade body Foratom said yesterday. The Commission, it said, should reconsider its decision to exclude nuclear from economic activities covered by the initiative.

The nuclear industry's future is bright, but a number of issues - including public acceptance - must first be resolved, according to a panel of industry leaders at the 24th World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The World Energy Council has developed a set of new global nuclear perspectives that feed into an update to its World Energy Scenarios. Nuclear generating capacity is expected to grow up to 2060 in all three of these scenarios.

Nuclear energy has a proven track record of supplying huge volumes of affordable, reliable and dependable clean electricity, but its positive attributes are largely overlooked, according to a new white paper from ¶¶Òõpro. "The use of nuclear energy is the fast track to a high-powered and clean energy system," the Association says.

Nuclear must be part of a fossil-free future, but the industry first needs to address the cost of constructing new reactors, Magnus Hall, CEO of Swedish utility Vattenfall AB, told delegates attending ¶¶Òõpro Symposium 2019 in London.