Oxford Debate "The nuclear option is the only green option"

Proposer: Professor Sir David King

Today, none but the most ill-informed can maintain that we do not face massive problems from human induced climate change. The most recent IPCC report published at the end of last year sent a clarion call for real action from the political world. The scientific prognosis has become increasingly alarming, but the Kyoto process, begun in 1997, has virtually stalled.  A new process needs to be implemented in Copenhagen in December 2009.  In the wake of the UNFCCC Conference in Bali we will see over the next eighteen months how the world’s politicians actually measure up to the task.

Reducing emissions will require us to improve energy efficiency and develop a wide portfolio of new emissions-free technologies. Alternative technologies and energy-efficiency gains will certainly be needed for the UK to achieve the government’s target of reducing emissions by 60% by 2050 announced in 2003, or even by 80% as recently announced by the Prime Minister.  This would mean reducing our emissions per capita to about the same level as in India today. But we will also need other low-emission ways of making energy. That is why I believe nuclear energy is needed to help fill part of the UK’s low carbon energy mix. While I have high hopes for new zero-emission technologies in the future, efficient nuclear-fission power stations are already available and our needs are pressing.  The UK Government decision to proceed with nuclear new build was only taken after the most rigorous deliberation.

Nuclear power provides a steady stream of energy, and does not depend on hydrocarbon supplies from possibly unstable regimes. Nuclear power currently accounts for approximately 18% of our grid^* electricity generation and 7.5% of total UK energy supplies.  Twenty years ago, 30% of our grid^* electricity was generated by nuclear power.  Of all the major countries in the EU, France has the lowest per capita CO2 emissions.  Not coincidentally France also has the highest percentage of nuclear power on the electricity grid.  So we can conclude that nuclear power is potentially an important part of the programme for decarbonising the economy. 

 

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