This is one of the major challenges of this COP. Twenty countries, including the United States, France and the United Arab Emirates, today called for tripling nuclear energy capacities in the world by 2050 compared to 2020, to reduce dependence on coal and gas. The joint announcement was made in Dubai by John Kerry, the US climate envoy, along with several leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo. Follow our live stream.
The United States unveils its plan to combat methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. The American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled its final regulations in Dubai to combat this particularly powerful greenhouse gas. The agency calls, for example, to eliminate gas flaring at new installations, to require companies to monitor methane leaks using technologies “low cost and innovative”and the use of technologies such as leak detection using satellite observations.
Japan will stop building coal-fired power plants without CO2 capture. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged to no longer build new coal-fired power plants without integrating CO2 capture or storage technology. The country, heavily dependent on imports of coal and other fossil fuels, seeks to become carbon neutral by 2050. But according to some experts like Leo Roberts, a researcher at the climate think tank E3G, this change is a “back door” to increase the lifespan of “fossil fuel infrastructure” existing.
Exclude nuclear power, “it’s obsolete”says the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Director General of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, calls for unblocking international public funding for nuclear energy.