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Nuclear cuts 'bad news' for climate change

Japan may review climate goals over nuclear crisis
Tokyo (AFP) April 4, 2011 - Japan signalled Monday it may review ambitious climate goals amid a nuclear disaster that has crippled reactors and highlighted the radiation risk of the low-carbon energy source. Top government spokesman Yukio Edano said Japan's carbon emission reduction goals, along with many other policies, were open to review after the quake, tsunami and nuclear calamities struck over three weeks ago. Japan has pledged to cut its greenhouse emissions by 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels -- provided other major polluters also make sharp reductions -- one of the most ambitious targets of any industrialised country.

But the environment ministry's top bureaucrat, Hideki Minamikawa, said at UN climate talks in Bangkok that the March 11 disaster and Fukushima nuclear plant crisis had compromised the goal, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily said. "It is true that the reduction goal will be affected a great deal," he was quoted as saying, adding that the carbon cut target was based on plans to build new reactors and to improve the capabilities of old ones. "Both the target year and reduction percentage will be reviewed," the vice minister was quoted by the mass-circulation daily as saying. Edano appeared to back Minamikawa's comments, saying: "Needless to say, this great disaster will have a great impact in many areas in Japan.

"Not only the 25 percent reduction target but also many other challenges that Japan is facing now should be examined at one point because many areas have been impacted by the quake disaster." Resource-poor Japan meets about one third of its energy demand from nuclear energy and relies heavily on Middle Eastern oil imports, while its companies are leaders in energy efficiency and green technologies. Japan has lost generating capacity from the Fukushima and other damaged nuclear plants as well as quake damage to its power grid and has implemented rolling blackouts and urged people to cut down on energy use. The quake and tsunami crippled the cooling systems at Fukushima with several partial reactor meltdowns, sparking the worst atomic accident since Chernobyl in 1986. Contamination has been found in the local air, soil, sea and food.
by Staff Writers
Singapore (AFP) April 4, 2011
A global slowdown in the growth of nuclear power in reaction to the Japan crisis will seriously hamper the fight against climate change, a top International Energy Agency (IEA) official said Monday.

IEA chief economist Fatih Birol told AFP that governments must study the implications carefully before making any decision to retire nuclear power plants earlier than expected or shelve plans for new facilities.

"Nuclear is a very crucial part of the global energy mix," he said in a telephone interview from the IEA headquarters in Paris as Japan battled to place the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactors under control.

"A lower nuclear capacity growth in the future may have substantial effect on the global energy mix, energy prices and climate change."

In its annual report released last year, the IEA projected that 360 gigawatts of nuclear generating capacity would be added worldwide by 2035, on top of the existing 390 gigawatts already in use.

But as governments turn more cautious after a killer quake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan on March 11 and crippled the Fukushima plant, the IEA modelled the possible consequences of halving its projection to 180 gigawatts.

Birol said the model showed that the use of coal, natural gas and "renewables" to take up the slack from nuclear power would result in additional carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of 500 million tonnes.

This is equivalent to five years of growth in global CO2 emissions, hindering efforts to keep global temperatures from rising more than two degrees Celsius.

"Instead of reaching the (emissions) level by 2035, we will reach it in 2030 -- five years earlier -- which is definitely bad news for climate change and will make the challenge even much more difficult to achieve," Birol said.

He said higher demand for coal and gas is expected to push prices for these commodities higher, resulting in costlier electricity tariffs for consumers.

A third major implication of curbs on nuclear power that it will upset the global energy mix, Birol added.

Nuclear fuel does not emit any carbon dioxide, making it a serious option for "clean energy" proponents until the accident at the Fukushima plant prompted a fresh debate on the safety of nuclear energy.

Germany has announced the temporary shutdown of its seven oldest nuclear reactors while it conducts a safety probe in light of Japan's atomic emergency.

Switzerland suspended plans to replace its ageing atomic plants, while in France -- where nuclear makes up 75 percent of electricity production -- environmental groups have called for a referendum on the future use of nuclear power.

Calls have also been made in Asia to review nuclear plans based on lessons learned from Fukishima.

"The reason we made this assessment is for everybody to understand the consequences of a lower-than-expected role of nuclear power in the global energy mix and in the (fight against) climate change," Birol said.

"I think we should avoid making abrupt decisions."



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CLIMATE SCIENCE
Japan nuclear crisis to affect climate battle: EU
Bangkok (AFP) April 3, 2011
Japan's nuclear crisis will have a clear impact on global efforts to fight climate change, the chief EU negotiator said Sunday as the latest round of UN talks got under way. "Nuclear is one of those energy options that has very, very low greenhouse gas emissions," Artur Runge-Metzger said at a news conference on the sidelines of the meeting in Bangkok. "If you look at the energy mix coun ... read more







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