Nuclear industry looks to poorer countries for future growth

From COP 15 - Copenhagen:

The nuclear industry is hoping that current climate change talks in Bonn will overturn eight years of exclusion under the Kyoto Protocol.

Michael von Bülow
08/06/2009 12:15

The nuclear industry is hoping that UN-led climate talks in Bonn, now going into their second and final week, will overturn eight years of exclusion from schemes meant to help poorer countries develop low-carbon technologies.

The draft text currently under discussion in the 182-countries forum in Bonn, includes an option to make nuclear plants eligible for funding from 2012 under two schemes: the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation.

Nuclear power was excluded from these schemes under the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, after opposition from European and developing countries.

While the nuclear industry is optimistic, environmentalists are concerned.

“It’s a survival strategy for the nuclear industry, not the planet,” says Shaun Burnie, a nuclear energy consultant and former Greenpeace campaigner.