President Biden met with 40 world leaders last week and promised to get the United States back on the climate control track. He and the other leaders pledged to shift to clean energy and dramatically reduce emissions—with the U.S. promising a 50 to 52 percent reduction below 2005 levels by 2030. Expectations and aspirations are high.
But promises won’t stop climate change. Cutting emissions will require action in the form of appropriate policy, research, investment and deployment.
What, specifically, can we do?
Here’s three ways we can meet the aggressive goals we’ve pledged ourselves to:
- Invest in Energy Innovation: Climate advocates, policymakers and leaders like Bill Gates agree that the only way we can eliminate carbon emissions is through innovation. Many of the technologies that will help us reach a carbon-free future are already being developed.
There are major advances happening in advanced nuclear technology, for example. Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy announced nearly $3.9 billion in funding through the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program for research and development to bring two pathbreaking advanced reactors into operation in five to seven years, and a pipeline of new projects after that. And the department has promised $1.4 billion towards a small modular reactor project planned in Idaho. Congress has paid for the beginnings of each of these programs. But the investment curve gets steeper in the next few years.
We must continue to fund innovative advanced nuclear projects through private and public investment. The market is strong, with 40 utilities, including the nation’s largest, already pledging to reduce emissions by about three quarters by 2050. But the innovation already underway will need a helping hand to bring the zero-carbon products to market—which will also include innovation in fuels, some of which may be provided by the government. - Preserve All the Carbon-Free Electricity We Have: The nation’s largest source of clean energy is nuclear reactors that are already running, which have slowed the buildup of climate-changing gases in the atmosphere and can continue to do this vital work for decades to come.
The Biden administration has acknowledged the role of our current reactors, listing existing nuclear as a resource for reaching their ambitious climate goals—and other policymakers like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) have applauded the administration’s leadership in this area. But because of flawed markets and changing economic conditions, nuclear plants need to be recognized in policy and compensated appropriately.
States with aspirations to do their part for clean air and climate stability have systems in place, and some are developing or revising such policies. Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Illinois are in this category and others may step forward. The White House has also proposed a national clean energy standard that would compensate nuclear plants for their carbon-free energy, as part of its major infrastructure package, the American Jobs Plan.
The most effective path to a carbon-free future is to preserve and properly value America’s 94 nuclear plants. - Recapture U.S. Leadership in the Global Nuclear Market: Stabilizing the climate will require global action. Outside the industrialized world, demand for electricity is galloping ahead and is mostly met with new plants burning coal.
As in the United States, nuclear will be an essential component of a zero-carbon electric system worldwide, and more than 30 countries are working to develop nuclear energy programs. The potential market is more than $8 trillion between now and 2050.
Current reactor technology and the advanced and small reactors in development all have a role to play. And returning the United States to a leading export role will create jobs here, cement commercial relationships with developing countries for decades to come, and boost global health and prosperity, in addition to solving the climate problem.
Ambitious goals are an important first step and provide important signals about the effort needed to reduce emissions. But real progress on climate change will require action, investment and policy, and nuclear energy will be key to making any climate solution work.
