nucleareurope discusses investments in sustainability at Webit festival

On 23 October 2024, nucleareurope Communications and Advocacy Director Jessica Johnson participated in a panel discussion on the topic of corporate investments to build a sustainable future, in the framework of the Webit festival 2024, held in Sofia from 22 to 24 October.

During the discussion, Jessica gave an overview of the current state of play for nuclear in the EU, highlighting the increasing support for nuclear energy in Europe, and the upcoming deployment of additional nuclear capacity in many EU member States.

In light of these developments, Jessica detailed the recent transformations in EU legislation, such as the inclusion of nuclear in the sustainable finance taxonomy, noting however that the polarised nature of the debate on nuclear in Europe had led to nuclear being excluded from some EU funds and financing mechanisms, for purely ideological reasons.

“With the energy crisis that we are facing and the large quantities of clean energy that will be needed in the future, EU policy makers simply cannot afford to be ideological. The question is not whether we will need renewables or nuclear, but how we can expand all of Europe’s low-carbon energy capacity to reach net-zero by 2050” said Jessica, adding that nuclear currently provides an essential supply of secure, stable, clean and affordable energy to the EU.

Jessica concluded her intervention by noting that the stable nature of nuclear energy would also be key to respond to the constant energy demand of facilities such as AI datacentres, as exemplified by Google’s recent decision to purchase nuclear energy from SMRs to supply their datacentres.