IAEA experts are briefing participants to the two-week Climate Change Conference that opened today in Poznan, Poland, on the potential role of nuclear energy for the mitigation of climate change.
"Global interest in nuclear power is definitely on the rise," says Holger Rogner, Head of the IAEA´s Planning and Economic Studies Section, who also heads the IAEA delegation at the meeting. "This has also to do with the fact that nuclear power cannot be ignored when it comes to mitigating the effects of climate change. Many of the more than 50 member states that have expressed an interest in developing nuclear power also have in mind the fact that it generates few greenhouse gases."
During the Conference, the IAEA will be holding two side events focused on nuclear power generation jointly-organised with Poland´s National Atomic Energy Agency (NAEA) and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). "The IAEA is a resource on all things relating to nuclear power available to all Member States and conference parties interested in issues surrounding the technology," says Rogner.
At the event, the IAEA is also presenting a new publication titled Climate Change and Nuclear Power 2008, which shows the climate change mitigation potential of nuclear power.
The booklet also looks at general nuclear issues such as fuel supply, safety and security, and features a section dedicated to national perspectives on the UK, US, China, Russia, Poland and Germany.
Background
The 14th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 4th Meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol is expected to draw around 9000 participants, including government delegates and representatives from business and industry.
The meeting is the halfway mark in the negotiations on an ambitious international climate change deal expected to be clinched in Copenhagen in 2009.
The conference is taking place in Poznan, Poland, from 1-12 December.