In the build up to international climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December, the Group of Eight (G8) nations have called for international cooperation in nuclear energy.

G8 leaders say that a growing number of countries have expressed interest in nuclear energy programs as a means to address climate change and energy security concerns.

“In the opinion of these countries, nuclear energy can play an essential role as it meets the dual challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and lowering fossil fuel consumption,” the leaders said.

The G8 includes the leaders of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia.

This pro-nuclear message, stronger than last year’s, demonstrates increasing recognition of nuclear energy’s environmental and energy security benefits by world leaders. The G8 resolution added that a “fundamental prerequisite for nuclear energy expansion” is a continuing “international commitment to safeguards, nonproliferation, and safety and security.” The leaders said they would work closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency “to promote the development and implementation of robust international treaties, standards, recommendations and monitoring procedures.”

The leaders say that a “global green recovery” is one way of recovering from the current economic crisis. They noted that fiscal stimulus packages are “increasingly investing in measures encouraging the creation of green jobs and low-carbon, energy efficient and sustainable growth.”

The leaders also said they are committed to reaching a “global, ambitious and comprehensive” climate change agreement in Copenhagen.

The statement from G8 leaders followed earlier statements from two other groups that encouraged the development of nuclear energy—scientists from the National Academies of the G8 nations plus those from Mexico, Brazil, China, India and South Africa, and the G8 energy ministers.

The statement from the National Academies, the leading scientific research institutions of their respective countries, called for the emergence of a global low-carbon economy, including the “development of nuclear power plants that are safe and secure, and ensure the secure long-term management and disposal of waste.”

Among the strategies for mitigating climate change, the G8+5 statement directly called on all governments to adopt a “long-term global goal that will halve carbon emissions from 1990 levels by 2050. In order to reach this goal, the scientists urged international cooperation on the development of “safe and secure nuclear power capacity, the safe disposal of nuclear waste and the reduction of the risk of proliferation.”

The G8 energy ministers in their statement encourage “all countries interested in the civil use of nuclear energy to engage in constructive international collaboration.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in a 2007 assessment of climate change issues, said that nuclear energy is a key mitigation technology and lists it among the portfolio of energy options available to significantly reduce greenhouse gases. In the United States alone, nuclear energy prevents the emission of 680 million metric tons of carbon each year.

These declarations of support for nuclear energy’s climate mitigation potential are drawn from an increasing body of independent analysts. Most recently, both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Information Administration confirmed this in their analytical modeling of proposed climate legislation. Both studies found that restricting the growth of nuclear energy makes it harder to meet climate goals and increases the cost of doing so.

—Nuclear Energy Insight, September 2009