The International Energy Agency today launched its Sustainable Recovery Tracker that monitors governments' fiscal responses to the COVID-19 crisis and estimates their impact on clean energy investments and global CO2 emissions. The new online tool is a contribution to the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Environment, Climate and Energy, which takes place in Naples on 22 and 23 July under the presidency of Italy.

General Electric has announced a commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, following a shareholder vote on an As You Sow resolution on 4 May. This target not only encompasses GE's operations but also includes its 'Scope 3' emissions from customers' use of the products it sells, including power generation equipment, which account for a significant portion of the company’s emissions. Meanwhile GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has announced the creation of 80 highly skilled jobs in Ontario to support the deployment of BWRX-300 small modular reactors in Canada and around the world.

Foratom has welcomed the European Commission's proposed Fit for 55 to make the EU's climate, energy, land use, transport and taxation policies 'fit' for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, but says the target leaves open key questions. How will be this transition financed? Will we have enough low-carbon energy to meet our needs? How can we ensure that industries are able to decarbonise their manufacturing processes whilst remaining competitive? And how can we mitigate potential social impacts (e.g. job losses and energy poverty)?

After falling by about 1% in 2020 due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, global electricity demand will increase by 5% in 2021 and 4% in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency. However, almost half of this increase will be from fossil fuels - notably coal - threatening to push CO2 emissions from the power sector to record levels in 2022. Nuclear power generation is forecast to grow by around 1% in 2021 and by 2% in 2022.

A new report published today by the UK's Nuclear Sector Deal’s Innovation Group presents a series of recommendations for realising the opportunity of zero-carbon hydrogen from nuclear energy. Its findings follow a Nuclear Hydrogen Roundtable event, which brought together over 80 experts and industry leaders from across the hydrogen value chain.

A common misconception about advanced nuclear technologies is that they are largely conceptual and will not be commercialised in time to contribute to meeting near-term climate goals, but a comprehensive look at global efforts to develop advanced nuclear reveals rapid progress towards commercialisation and operation, write Clean Air Task Force, ClearPath, Nuclear Innovation Alliance, Pillsbury and Third Way.

Nearly 100 Members of the European Parliament have called on the European Commission "to follow the science" and include nuclear under the EU's Sustainable Finance Taxonomy. According to a letter sent to Commissioners and published by European nuclear trade body Foratom, the MEPs urge them "to choose the path that their scientific experts have now advised them to take", namely to include nuclear power in the EU's Taxonomy on Sustainable Finance.

Nuclear energy has been excluded from the UK government's Green Financing Framework, while several EU Member States have written to the European Commission to oppose nuclear's inclusion in the bloc's green taxonomy.

The UK government must make urgent decisions in this Parliament to restore UK nuclear capacity to at least 10 GW based on deployable technologies by the early 2030s, according to a report produced by a cross-party group of Members of Parliament. Meanwhile, the government has announced an earlier target for the phaseout of coal and a bill to reflect the country's freedom from EU state aid rules.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is better prepared for the UN COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow in November than it was for COP25, its director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said in an interview. He called on world leaders to recognise the hard facts about nuclear energy and the contribution it can make to tackling climate change.

Government leadership and support from policymakers is needed to instill confidence in the investment community towards nuclear energy, Sama Bilbao y León, director general of World Nuclear Association, said yesterday during a side event held as part of the UN Ministerial Thematic Forums for the High-level Dialogue on Energy that will take place in September. The side event - Nuclear energy's contribution to net zero and the sustainable development goals - was organised by World Nuclear Association together with Canadian Nuclear Association, Foratom, the Japan Atomic Industry Forum and the Nuclear Energy Institute, and sponsored by the Clean Energy Ministerial NICE Future initiative.

Nuclear power, the largest source of carbon-free electricity generation today, should continue to be a pillar in the energy transition to a carbon-free future and in helping countries achieve energy security, GE says in a newly published 'positioning paper'. It says two parallel paths are needed: maximizing the lifetime output of the existing installed fleet and building new nuclear plants with best-in-class technology.