From 6th to 17th November, the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 23) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change took place in Bonn (Germany) under the Presidency of Fiji. Delegates from all over the world discussed the ways to achieve the goals set out in the Paris agreement with a focus on transparency, emission reductions, provision of finance, capacity-building, and technological development. The event gathered representatives of governments, energy companies, scientists, journalists and those who are not indifferent to the problems of climate change. On the sidelines of the conference some events featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Arnold Schwarzenegger and many others took place.
This year the Conference revealed the growing recognition by the scientific community (especially ecologists) of nuclear as an integral part of the green energy balance. “Without expansion of nuclear power, it will be practically impossible to meet the targets of the Paris COP21 Climate Conference”, stated Wolfgang Denk, European Director of NGO Energy for Humanity (EFH), one of the authors of the “European Climate Leadership Report 2017, Measuring the Metrics that Matter” published on November 8 in Bonn, at COP23 by EFH.
In the framework of the conference, in the Russian pavilion, the country’s contribution to global decarbonization was comprehensively discussed, where the State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM as one of the key actors also participated and shared its best practices. Rosatom’s delegation was headed by the Regional Vice President of Rosatom Western Europe Andrey Rozhdestvin, who delivered a report on the topic “Nuclear energy as an indispensable factor of “green” economy and sustainable development” on November 14. In his presentation Mr. Rozhdestvin focused on the key role of the atom in creating a global carbon-free energy balance of the future highlighting that “decarbonization does not suppose an increase of the electricity prices for the final customer. It supposes equality. Nuclear energy is a time-tested low-carbon option, available today.” As a driver of the sustainable development the investments in nuclear power in emerging coun-tries “have a positive impact on social and economic development, playing a prominent role in job creation and higher education”.
Rozhdestvin closed his speech with his key statement which reflects the company’s idea: “More than a simple need, nuclear is indispensable.”
Also, as a parallel event of the conference, Russia organized a roundtable “Russia’s contribution into low-emission economies”, where Rosatom was able to present its expertise, along with speakers from the Presidential Administration of Russia, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, PJSC Gazprom and UC Rusal. At this roundtable, which took place on November 15, Alexey Lokhov, Deputy Director of Rosatom Western Europe made a presentation on the topic “Nuclear and renewable for diversified low-carbon energy mix”, in which he stressed that “Nuclear is a proven and efficient solution for meeting the climate objectives, it provides low-carbon baseload power at predictable and competitive cost. The energy mixes of Sweden, Switzerland and France show that achieving very low GHG emissions from the power sector is feasible, thanks to nuclear power. And Rosatom is the world leader in international NPP construction, thus contributing significantly to the reduction of the CO2 emissions”. By saying that Mr. Lokhov reiterated the importance of comple-mentarity of nuclear and renewables in the future energy balance for the sake of low-carbon energy mix to mitigate climate change.