British Treasury Secretary Jeremy Hunt has launched a new push for nuclear power, which he hopes will supply a quarter of Britain’s electricity by 2050. Hunt also initiated consultations to classify nuclear power as “environmentally sustainable”. In this respect Wrote The Wall Street Journal newspaper. The article says we’re talking about a “nuclear breakthrough.”
The material shows that Hunt followed in the footsteps of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson by making bold statements about the importance of nuclear power.
“British nuclear power plants were built in the 1950s and are now obsolete, only one, Sizewell B, to be operational after 2028. Last week, the French EDF, which operates the stations, said it has extended the life of the other two stations. They argue that energy provides a ‘base load’ that can be relied upon, while renewables such as wind and solar are weather dependent, meaning they cannot always help align a proposal with demand. There are also high hopes for nuclear fusion as an energy source, but it has not been commercialized.
The newspaper emphasizes that the reclassification of nuclear energy is done to attract private investment.
“This is important because many funds dedicated to environmental, social and governance investments (ESG) have emerged in global financial markets in recent years. These funds promise their investors that their money will go towards a public good, such as tackling the climate crisis. Hunt also has Joe Biden’s $369 billion had to respond to the Inflation Reduction Act, the climate subsidy package.
But the UK is not the first country to do so. The article says that last year the European Commission decided to call nuclear power a green investment. The EU Parliament said the change in taxonomy was aimed at “promoting green investment and preventing green money laundering”. This decision, however, faced legal issues from groups including Greenpeace.