Climate Assets monthly update: Can nuclear be deemed sustainable?

Fortunately, last month’s UK budget was not as disastrous as the previous one in September. The latest budget also shed some light on the government’s net zero plans. The UK chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, had his hand forced, in part, by US president Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and the European Union’s Green Deal Industrial Plan. Hunt has focussed on growth areas and committed to ring-fence £20bn for carbon capture and storage technology development. A more disappointing announcement was that nuclear would be considered environmentally sustainable in the UK’s green taxonomy. Whereas other countries including Canada have not deemed nuclear sustainable – a view we share. There is an argument for needing nuclear to reach our net zero goals, however defining nuclear as sustainable will potentially do more harm than good.

There seems to have been a separation between what is sustainable and what is renewable, when really, they should be the same. A nuclear reactor needs to be refuelled every 18 to 24 months, whereas wind farms, for example, produce energy uninterrupted for 25-35 years, except for when the wind is not blowing. Unlike wind or solar power, nuclear’s ability to produce energy does not rely on the weather and will therefore improve reliability of the grid. The technology is also energy dense, meaning you do not need to run a nuclear reactor for that long to produce large amounts of energy. The reason the UK government need to class nuclear as sustainable is because it will spur on investment in a technology that doesn’t produce greenhouse gas emissions.

As renewable energy plays a crucial role in tackling climate change, ‘Clean Energy’ is one of the five investment themes of the Climate Assets Funds. We consider clean energy or environmentally sustainable technology to be renewable energy such as wind power, solar power or hydropower. These technologies, once in place, produce energy for the lifetime of the asset and after 30 odd years are decommissioned and replaced, with as much material being recycled as possible. For further information on this investment theme please read here.

Water is another investment theme for the Climate Assets Funds and one we have decided to address in our upcoming event. Please join us on Thursday 25 May at Farmers and Fletchers in the City for a conversation with environmental campaigner, Feargal Sharkey OBE, followed by drinks and canapes to address the issues around water consumption and conservation in the UK. Register here.

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