Full Title: Nuclear Energy and Climate Change
Author(s): Nuclear Energy Agency
Publisher(s): Nuclear Energy Agency
Publication Date: December 4, 2023
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
This report from the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) addresses the role of nuclear energy in the climate crisis. The climate crisis is one of the defining challenges of this generation, yet countries are off-track to limit global warming in line with the IPCC 1.5°C scenario and the window for action is narrowing rapidly.
NEA analysis concludes that tripling global installed nuclear capacity provides a realistic and practical path to meet net zero goals by 2050. The world could avoid 87 gigatonnes of cumulative emissions between 2020 and 2050 with a combination of long-term operation (LTO) of existing reactors, new large-scale reactor builds, and the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs). By 2050, nuclear energy could displace 5 gigatonnes of emissions each year, which is more than the annual emissions of the entire US economy today