Future Expectations: Looking at COP28
COP28 is the short form of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC. This conference has been going on since November 30 and will continue till December 12 at Expo City in Dubai, UAE. The goal of this event is to bring all the major countries together in one place in order to agree to potential solutions that we as a planet wish to work toward achieving. The countries that participate include the following: United States, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ghana, Hungary, Japan, Republic of Korea, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Nations come together in order to accelerate the green transition of Earth and to further work toward restricting the global temperature rise.
An image from the summit (CNN)
At this conference, a big decision was made in regards to a new and improved focus on an alternative source of energy. Nuclear energy was a topic that was brought up multiple times and, eventually, it became a topic that transformed into an achievable solution in the coming future. All the countries came together and recognized that nuclear energy is a viable option in achieving global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions/carbon neutrality. The U.S. The United States Department of Energy stated that the countries at COP28 are “recognizing that new nuclear technologies could occupy a small land footprint and can be sited where needed, partner well with renewable energy sources, and have additional flexibilities that support decarbonization beyond the power sector, including hard-to-abate industrial sectors” (energy.gov). With this, we can see that nuclear energy seems to achieve mostly all positive effects as an alternative energy source.
An image of the Nuclear Power Plant in Palo Verde, Arizona (American Nuclear Society)
Ultimately, it was decided that all the countries would “commit to work together to advance a global aspirational goal of tripling nuclear energy capacity from 2020 by 2050, recognizing the different domestic circumstances of each Participant [each country]” (energy.gov). This would include investing in the manufacturing and operating of these plants worldwide, introducing higher standards of safety elements to ensure that all operators are working in secure facilities. With the goal of tripling nuclear energy capacity in the next 30 years, we will reach global net-zero emissions by the year 2050.
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