Europe has a big decision to make on nuclear power
Cooling towers at the Tricastin Evolutionary Power Reactor nuclear power plant in France.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
LONDON — The European Union must decide whether nuclear is a clean source of energy, but the decision is tough with countries divided about the right labelling.
Some EU members, notably France, which have big investments in nuclear and are wary of using gas from Russia see the energy resource as a viable option. Other nations, including Germany, believe it is time to move away from it and are worried about nuclear waste.
It is a long-standing dilemma that the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, must resolve in the coming weeks. The commission is due to publish its sustainable finance taxonomy — rules that will help clarify to investors what the bloc sees as green investments — as an attempt to boost financing in these areas.
Ultimately, its decision will have repercussions on its efforts to be a global leader in the area of climate change.
A transition source
“We need more renewables. They are cheaper, carbon-free, and homegrown,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in October.
However, she added: “We also need a stable source, nuclear, and during the transition, gas.”
Her comments increased expectations that her team will announce that nuclear can be included in this cleaner energy mix.
Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at The German Marshall Fund of the United States, told CNBC Monday that it is “the right decision” for both environmental and political reasons if the commission announces that nuclear is relatively clean.
“What are you going to offer Poland?” he questioned, if nuclear were to be banned in the EU bloc.
Coal dominates the Polish energy sector. It’s Poland’s main source of power but a major employer — which brings additional economic pressures if the energy source is phased out.
Warsaw has plans to reduce the share of coal and lignite in its electricity production from just under 80% in 2017 to 60% by 2030. Despite the country signing a pledge to rapidly phase out coal production at the COP26 climate summit last week, Poland’s target reportedly still remains 2049.
The core problem for critics is that there is no solution for long-term storage of nuclear waste.
Henning Gloystein
Director, Eurasia Group
Accelerating this change is challenging, hence, some nations and energy experts see nuclear as a “transition” source of energy.
Cedric O, France’s secretary of state for the digital sector, told CNBC Tuesday that nuclear energy “is not an ideological question, it is a mathematical question.”
In order to reduce carbon emissions, he said, “you need a basis and you need an energy that is not dependent on the level of sun or on the speed of the wind, you need an energy that is consistent,” referring to nuclear as the best option.
Not everybody agrees with this view.
“Opponents to inclusion of nuclear power into the EU green taxonomy, led by Germany, argue that the technology is not…
Read More: Europe has a big decision to make on nuclear power