From providing clean energy to protecting water resources and developing smarter agriculture, nuclear science and technology can make a significant contribution to mitigating, monitoring and adapting to the impacts of climate change. This is what the IAEA and partners demonstrated in a series of side events throughout the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The IAEA-led event space #Atoms4Climate – the first ever pavilion at a COP dedicated to the applications of nuclear science and technology – featured more than 40 events, all of which were livestreamed.
Nuclear is here. Nuclear is already part of the solution, and nuclear will continue to be in this path.
Rafael Mariano Gross, IAEA Director General
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Gross officially opened the #Atoms4Climate pavilion on Wednesday, 9 November, at an event that brought together high level representatives from governments, international organizations, industry and civil society. The speakers included Matthew OPO KU Premier, Ghana’s Minister of Energy; Kathryn Huff, US Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy; Cecilia Nicolai, State Secretary for Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Innovation from Argentina; Better Tables, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WHO); Maria Helena Seed, Deputy Director General of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); and others.
Mr Gross message to leaders at COP was that nuclear science and technology are part of the solution to both mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change impacts. “Nuclear is here. Nuclear is already part of the solution, and nuclear will continue to be in this path,” he said.
The Director General participated in numerous events organized in the framework of COP27. On 9 November, he talked about the issues of peace, non-proliferation, climate change and energy security with William Kennedy, a senior executive editor at Bloomberg News. On the same day, he interviewed Fatih Tirol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), and then led a panel to exchange opinions on the role of nuclear energy in achieving net-zero emissions The Clean Energy Advocacy: Engaging Stakeholders with Science the Achieve Net Zero event was joined by Richard Betty, a leading scientist from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). According to the UN Environment Program(NEP), there are currently no credible pathways in place to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, unless an urgent and systemic transformation is achieved. Dr Betty called for all available means to slow down the global temperature rise and suggested taking advantage of the benefits offered by nuclear power.
An event, Carbon Removal Using Coastal Blue Carbon Ecosystems, showed how the absorption of CO2 by the ocean provides a nature-based solution for reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. A complementary event showing the other side of the coin, Ocean Acidification Adaptation and Resilience in Africa, gathered marine experts to discuss how nuclear and isotopic techniques help assess ocean acidification. They focused on the need to support countries on the African continent in analyzing the CO2 uptake of the ocean and understanding how to better protect marine resources.
You must be logged in to post a comment.