nucleareurope organises webinar on key takeaways from Pathways to 2050 report

On 8 November 2024, nucleareurope organised a webinar on the recent Compass Lexecon “Pathways to 2050: the role of nuclear in a low-carbon Europe” report, commissioned by nucleareurope. Speakers from nucleareurope, Compass Lexecon and industry stakeholders discussed the key takeaways from the report, and its potential impact on European energy policy.

In his introductory remarks, nucleareurope Director General Yves Desbazeille gave an overview of the context in which the report was published, highlighting nuclear’s current contributions to the EU’s economy but also detailing the longer term perspective on nuclear’s role in the energy system .

Two speakers from Compass Lexecon – Fabien Roques, Executive Vice President & Head of Energy Practice and Hugo de Sevin, Economist – then detailed the findings of the report. They noted that the report found that aiming for 150 GW of nuclear installed capacity by 2050 would for example save around 430 million tonnes of CO2, save €310 billion in total energy system costs, reduce gas consumption by about 180 billion cubic metres and reduce dependence on hydrogen imports by up to 33%. Aiming for 200 GW of nuclear installed capacity by 2050 would increase these benefits further.

Following Compass Lexecon’s presentation, nucleareurope Policy Director Andrei Goicea gave some insights into nucleareurope’s own takeaways from the report. He stressed that the report shows that additional nuclear capacity would allow the EU to respond to the energy trilemma, helping to achieve faster decarbonisation at lower costs while ensuring security of supply. He added that nuclear is set to play an essential role in the energy transition, noting that the implementation of enabling measures from policy-makers, industry, consumers, civil society, regulators and trade unions are crucial to support the development of additional nuclear capacity across Europe.

Impulse statements from Eurometaux, Cogen Europe, Eurelectric, and the Italian Nuclear Association, followed, describing the impact of the report’s findings for their respective organisations.

At the end of the webinar, participants had the opportunity to ask questions to the speakers.

More information about the report is available here, and the full recording of the webinar can be found here.