Faster German nuke phase out can sink Kyoto - expert
© 2000 Reuters Limited
June 21, 2000
Story by Paul Berrill
LONDON - German nuclear power plant decomissioning could sink the Kyoto global warming protocol if pushed at too fast a speed, climate experts said at a conference in London on Tuesday.
Last week the German government set a 2020 deadline for a pull-out from using nuclear plants for electricity generation but Germany's Green party wants a faster phase out." You could not phase out German nuclear power in 10 years and get Kyoto. It would sink the protocol," said Michael Grubb, professor of climate change and energy policy at Imperial College, London.
Green activists would most likely seek an end to nuclear policies ahead of global warming proposals, the conference on the Kyoto protocol organised by the Royal Institute of International Affairs heard.
But the experts said nuclear power was needed during the early phase of the Kyoto agreement to provide enough greenhouse gas-free power generation.
"It is very hard to see action on carbon gas emissions that would not add greater value to nuclear energy," said Henry Jacoby, William F Pounds professor of management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"Nuclear power is essential to Kyoto over the first 10 years," Grubb told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference. "The Germans cannot have all three things they want - concrete ceilings on greenhouse gas trading mechanisms, the Kyoto protocol and nuclear decommissioning," he said.
Renewable energy sources were not ready to bridge the gap and further development was needed for them to be a commercial success, he said.
Jacoby added that nuclear power could see a regeneration, unseen just five years ago, to bridge the gap in providing energy sources which did not contribute to global warming.
Two U.S. nuclear plants had recently been relicensed, he said.