IEA Pushes Nuclear as Carbon Emissions Set to Reach Limit

Nuclear power is needed to help reduce global fossil-fuel emissions that are set to reach limits advocated by scientists by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency.

The world will use up its budget to keep global warming below a level that averts the most severe climate change by 2040 as emissions from oil, natural gas and coal will rise about 20 percent, the Paris-based agency said in its annual World Energy Outlook report published today.  Nuclear power has helped cut the equivalent of two years of emissions at current levels since 1971, it said.

Public concern about nuclear safety must be addressed as the world needs the technology to displace other round-the-clock power plants amid plans to shutter almost half the reactors operational in 2013 by 2040 at a cost of more than $100 billion, the IEA said.  United Nations envoys are seeking to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) since the beginning of industrialization.

“Nuclear power is one of the few options available at scale to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions while providing or displacing other forms of baseload generation,” the IEA said. “The 2C objective requires urgent action to steer the energy system on to a safer path.”

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