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The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has called on global development banks and their government shareholders to finance new nuclear projects, warning that failure to do so could delay the energy transition. Financial Times reported Monday.
Rafael Grossi said the lack of financing for emissions-free nuclear energy from multilateral lenders such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank was “out of tune” with the wishes of most of their shareholders, indicating a “sea change” in attitudes towards nuclear energy due to the climate crisis and the Russia-Ukraine war.
International financial institutions are “obsolete, out of step with what is happening. This is… a kind of post-Chernobyl mantra, which no longer corresponds to the political directions of the countries and the ideas and projects that we are seeing”, Grossi said FT.
The World Bank, for example, has not supported a nuclear project since 1959, due to opposition from Germany and concerns about the spread of nuclear technology that could be used to produce nuclear weapons.
Nuclear energy advocates say support from global development banks is crucial to meeting the goal set in December by more than 20 countries at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050.
The IAEA estimates that annual investments in nuclear energy would need to more than double to $100 billion by 2030 to meet the Paris Agreement goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.
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