Climate Protection Needs Nuclear Power

The German Atomic Forum welcomes the international efforts to reduce the world-wide emissions of greenhouse gases and to cope with the global responsibilities to protect the world climate.

Bonn, 13.11.2001


Between July 16 and 27, 2001, the 6th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Framework Convention on Climate Change - which had been adjourned in The Hague in November 2000 - was continued in Bonn. At this conference, the participants agreed upon a broad political compromise with respect to the regulations of the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. At the 7th Conference of Parties, which took place at the end of October/beginning of November 2001 in Marrakech, further details of this political compromise were negotiated.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - UNFCCC, which provides the framework for the subsequent climate protection negotiations, was agreed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and is the first international contract in which the climate change is referred to as a serious threat and in which the community of states is committed to act.

There have indeed been scientific indications of a global climate change for many years. Numerous studies and expert opinions on this problem prove that during the course of the last one hundred years, the average ground temperature of the earth has risen by 0.3 to 0.6 degrees centigrade. There is far-reaching consensus that this temperature increase is mainly a consequence of an ever increasing anthropogenic (man-made) emission of climate-relevant gases which causes a disturbance of the natural radiation equilibrium in the earth-atmosphere-sun system.

At a press conference on July 5, 2001, in the run-up to the world climate summit, Federal Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin also stressed that there is no longer any doubt about the fact that we are seeing a man-made climate change. He said that thousands of scientist from all disciplines and all over the world agreed that the average global temperature would rise by several degrees in this century. The world-wide emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), mostly from the burning of fossil fuels, were mainly to blame. Storms, floods and droughts would have frightful effects, particularly for the poorest of the poor in the third world. "Reason enough for the industrialised nations to live up to their responsibilities - starting from now", emphasised Mr. Trittin.

The 1997 world climate conference in Kyoto is an important step in the direction of global responsibility for the climate. At this conference, the contracting states agreed upon a Protocol for the reduction of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride) and on the introduction of flexible mechanisms to achieve this aim. According to this Protocol, the participating states commit themselves to a clear reduction of the emission of these gases, above all of carbon dioxide: for example, the emissions within a time window of between the years 2008 and 2012 are initially to be reduced by 5.2 %, relating to the year 1990, with different reduction targets in some individual countries.

If one takes the targets specified at Kyoto seriously, an increased use of CO₂-free energy sources will be necessary in future. Here, nuclear power also plays a major role because nuclear power plants do not emit any waste products of combustion during operation and this way save the environment the emission of carbon dioxide. Nuclear power therefore contributes substantially to the attainment of the climate protection targets.

This is also why the German Atomic Forum criticises the decision by the participants of the climate conference in Bonn to exclude projects that are based on the use of nuclear power from the stipulations of the Protocol for Joint Implementation and the flexible Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). After all, with the expected world-wide increasing demand for energy, the protection of the climate requires the promotion of all technologies that contribute to the avoidance of CO₂ emissions. Nuclear power represents one of these technologies which has to be given a place in the future mix of energy forms, together with the development of renewables, improved ways of preventing emissions, and energy saving measures.

• In June 2001, an expert committee of the National Academy of Sciences recently commissioned by the White House again confirmed the connection between the emission of greenhouse gases and the increase in global warming, which had already been acknowledged by a large number of other scientists.
   
• Two hundred environmental experts of UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) from more than 50 countries were asked about the most serious environmental problems in the coming 100 years: the answer given most by far was "climate change". Many of the scientists fear that there will be far-reaching changes to the living conditions on the earth. They predict a shift of climatic zones, increasing melting of alpine glaciers and polar ice masses, an expansion of deserts and rising sea-levels if the growing greenhouse effect cannot be stopped.
   
• The last decade was the warmest of the past one thousand years. This is the conclusion by experts on climate from the German Meteorological Service (DWD) and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg which the two organisations presented at a conference in mid-August 2001 on the Zugspitze mountain. They clearly put down the rapid warming to the increase of CO₂in the atmosphere. For the last 500,000 years, the CO₂ content in the air has never been as high as today, while the protective ozone layer in the atmosphere has decreased. According to the experts, the anthropogenic carbon-dioxide emissions world-wide would have to be reduced towards zero in the next 100 years. This would be the only way to prevent a climate change with far-reaching consequences for mankind.
   
• If the world`s population keeps on growing at the current rate and if poverty is to be fought and future generations are to be given the chance of an adequate standard of living, especially in the developing countries, then this will go in hand with a strong increase in energy demand. In this context, energy sources have to be increasingly used which have the lowest possible effects on the environment. Energy saving measures and the use of renewables alone will not be sufficient by far to ensure such sustained economic development and limit world-wide climate changes.
   
• At present, about 8,000 million tons of CO₂ are emitted annually as a result of electricity generation. Due to the world population growth alone it is expected that this figure will rise even further in the coming years. However, it is also because of the "backlog demand " for energy-related services, especially in the regions where this growth mainly takes place, that it has to be expected that CO₂ emissions will increase to 9,000 to 10,000 million tons by the year 2010.
   
• In Germany, the year 2000 saw for the first time in four years an increase in the emission of the climatic harmful greenhouse gas by one percent or 9 million tons compared to the previous year. This is shown in a study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) that was published on February 8, 2001. Against this background, the DIW demands increased political efforts to further climate protection. The renewed rise in CO₂ illustrates the difficulty of emission savings and the need for an effective climate protection policy that can bring the indispensable emission reductions back on the right track. The climate protection target of the Federal Government to reduce CO₂ emissions by 25 % by the year 2005 compared to 1990 will otherwise be beyond reach.
   
• There exist at present no economically feasible technologies for the retention of CO₂ emissions in the production of electricity from fossil energy sources. Therefore the CO₂ emissions in connection with power generation can so far only be reduced by relying less on fossil energy sources or by making a shift within the spectrum of use of the energy sources. With regard to climatic effects and CO₂ emissions, the energy sources "nuclear" and "renewables" (including hydropower), which produce no CO₂ in operation, come of particularly well.
   
• The use of nuclear power presently saves a world-wide annual total of about 2,000 million tons of CO₂ emissions. In Germany alone, nuclear power plants have saved the atmosphere emissions of about 170 million tons of CO₂ in the year 2000. This is about as much CO₂ as is emitted every year by motor traffic on German roads. Nuclear power thus makes an important contribution to the mitigation of the climate problem, providing a partial solution to this problem.