The nuclear industry took part in the UN climate talks this week at a time when the subject is no longer merely climate change, but climate emergency. At a side-event organised by Nuclear for Climate, panellists described how nuclear power is an essential part of the global response to that emergency.

A discussion held yesterday at COP25 on partnerships in innovation to achieve the United Nations ninth Sustainable Development Goal showed how the various UN agencies and industry are working in an increasingly collaborative manner.

Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and industry are expected to grow slowly in 2019 due to a decline in the use of coal, according to a study by Global Carbon Project. However, a separate report from the Economist Intelligence Unit suggests the increasing use of renewables in 2020 will not be sufficient to meet targets set in the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Nuclear energy is a mature and proven low-carbon source of electricity, with a 60-year track record of providing reliable and safe operation. Further innovation and technological development will enable even wider applications aimed at deep decarbonisation of economies around the world and supporting sustainable development. This was the message of King Lee, director of the Harmony Programme at World Nuclear Association, to delegates at the UN side event for Sustainable Development Goal 9, held today at COP25 in Madrid.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres yesterday described current human behaviour as a "war against nature" and warned that, up to now, the efforts of the international community to reach targets outlined by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been "utterly inadequate". Guterres was speaking to reporters on the eve of the twenty-fifth session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change, or COP25, taking place in Madrid for the next two weeks.

The European Parliament yesterday adopted a resolution on COP25 - the 25th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - to begin in Madrid next week. The resolution states that all technologies - including nuclear - are needed to combat climate change, for which it has declared an emergency.

Global temperatures are on course to rise by as much as 3.9 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, according to the United Nations Environment Programme's latest Emissions Gap Report. Emissions must now fall by 7.6% each year to stop the worst effects of climate change.

Levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached another new record high, according to the World Meteorological Organisation. The WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin published today shows that globally averaged concentrations of CO2 reached 407.8 parts per million in 2018, up from 405.5 ppm in 2017. Global levels of CO2 crossed the 400 ppm "benchmark" in 2015.

Fair energy markets can and should be the perfect place for establishing an effective clean energy system bringing about real emission reduction, writes Dr Józef Sobolewski.

Innovation has always been at the heart of the nuclear power industry and its future depends on this commitment to technological advancement in both large and small reactor designs. This was the message of the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation General Ministerial Conference held in Washington DC last week.

Achieving net-zero emissions in the USA by 2050 will require action across society, a new report from the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions has concluded. It recommends the development of innovative technologies including small advanced reactors and strong policies to ensure they are deployed, including a long-term federal framework and an economy-wide carbon pricing programme.

Rapid and widespread changes across all parts of the energy system are needed to put the world on a path to a secure and sustainable energy future, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said today on launching the latest edition of its World Energy Outlook.