Energy Ministers from 20 nations sign on to push nuclear energy financing and international partnerships.
In what could be a watershed moment for nuclear energy, a large gathering of government energy leaders convened in France in recent days, to turbocharge international partnerships and financing for nuclear energy.
The conference, hosted by the French government, was aimed at ensuring nuclear energy is positioned as a long-term sustainable solution for global energy needs ahead of the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) to be held in Dubai on 30 November – 12 December 2023.
20 nations committed to nuclear energy to achieve their net zero emission targets, agreeing on a number of guiding principles to increase momentum in their nuclear new build projects.
Energy Ministers convened for the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) event, hosted by Paris, including 15 from Europe – Bulgaria, Romania, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine and the UK – as well as Turkey, South Korea, Japan, Ghana and the US attended.
The group was joined by industry stakeholders, including senior bosses from major nuclear energy suppliers, uranium supply chain providers and uranium miners.
The private sector will be key to developing means the rapid and safe buildout of global nuclear energy technologies in the coming years, as part of international decarbonisation efforts.
The group called for financing for nuclear and to ensure nuclear energy is included in ESG investments for clean energy.
“We encourage financial institutions to classify nuclear energy, as appropriate, with all other zero and low emission energy sources in finance taxonomies internationally; and We call for greater inclusion of nuclear energy in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies in the international financial system, considering that it is one of the zero and low emissions sources of power generation that can contribute substantially to climate change mitigation,” a statement said.
The leaders released a joint Communiqué after the conference on September 29:
Nuclear energy already plays a significant role in meeting climate goals and can play an even larger role in achieving global net zero emissions by 2050, consistent with the 1.5°C scenario and with the Paris Agreement.
Therefore, we, the Energy Ministers and heads of delegation1 of Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Ghana, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Poland, Romania, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Türkiye, Ukraine, The United Kingdom, the United States, gathered at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Headquarters in Paris, France on 28-29 September 2023, Commending the solidarity expressed by Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States during the G7 meeting in Sapporo, Japan in April 2023 in supporting nuclear energy as a means to provide affordable energy that reduces dependence on fossil fuels, helps address the climate crisis, provides jobs and growth, strengthens global energy security while providing baseload energy and grid flexibility;
Responding to ongoing geopolitical threats to energy security by accelerating deployment of nuclear energy as a source of stable and resilient power and heat in support of the diversification 1 Italy participated as an observer and did not take part in the debate or in the drafting of the Joint Communiqué of supply for both OECD countries and for emerging economies seeking to develop new nuclear energy programs; and With the goal to unlock access to significant amounts of capital at competitive rates to finance nuclear energy projects internationally.
