Reducing climate change gas emissions would be a great struggle without significantly increasing the role of nuclear energy – said Cornel Feruță, acting Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency at the conference about climate change and the role of nuclear energy, Nucnet wrote.
The acting Director General highlighted: currently 70% of global electricity demand is covered by fossil based production. In order to reach the goals set for 2050, 80% of electricity production has to be carbon-free, and this transition seems to be a great challenge.

At present, nuclear power provides 10% of the world’s electricity, but it accounts for one-third of all low-carbon electricity generated today – underlined Cornel Feruță. Currently, 30 countries operate 449 nuclear power reactors worldwide and in terms of emissions avoidance, that’s the equivalent of taking 400 million cars off the road every year.

The IAEA hosted a conference in this topic for the first time, 550 participants representing 79 countries and 18 international organizations attended the week-long conference.