As world leaders meet at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York this week, and the World Meteorological Organisation and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change publish new reports, Agneta Rising, director general of World Nuclear Association, stresses that nuclear power is the "unsung hero" in global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

The power sector supports the European Commission's goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the EU economy by 2050, the association of European electricity generators, Eurelectric, said. However, it has called for six "critical enablers" to be put in place to achieve this.

Energy ministers from across Central Asia today committed their countries to collaborating on meeting the United Nations' seventh Sustainable Development Goal, which pledges 'affordable and clean energy' by 2030. The meeting is the first time they have come together to discuss the region's common energy challenges.

Nuclear and renewable generation should be used in combination to make the most of their synergies in integrated systems to help the world meet carbon reduction goals and limit temperature rise, leaders from governmental and non-governmental organisations and industry said yesterday. Innovative nuclear technologies will play their part in integrated systems alongside renewables, with combined uses of heat and power, hydrogen production, desalination and industrial decarbonisation.

The European Commission must acknowledge the "critical role" that nuclear energy has to play under its sustainable finance initiative, European nuclear trade body Foratom said yesterday. The Commission, it said, should reconsider its decision to exclude nuclear from economic activities covered by the initiative.

The UK has won the bid to host the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26). It will host the main COP summit while Italy will host preparatory events. Up to 30,000 delegates are expected to attend the summit, which will be held at Glasgow's Scottish Events Campus in December next year.

The World Energy Council has developed a set of new global nuclear perspectives that feed into an update to its World Energy Scenarios. Nuclear generating capacity is expected to grow up to 2060 in all three of these scenarios.

Nuclear energy has a proven track record of supplying huge volumes of affordable, reliable and dependable clean electricity, but its positive attributes are largely overlooked, according to a new white paper from World Nuclear Association. "The use of nuclear energy is the fast track to a high-powered and clean energy system," the Association says.

The nuclear industry's future is bright, but a number of issues - including public acceptance - must first be resolved, according to a panel of industry leaders at the 24th World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Policymakers need to understand that the system costs of variable renewable energy necessitate the inclusion of nuclear and hydro as the primary dispatchable low-carbon generation options within a clean electricity mix. Representatives of the International Energy Agency and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency told delegates at World Nuclear Association Symposium 2019 in London last week that the issue of system costs was no longer a novelty, but an increasingly important topic in the fight against climate change.

There is increasing and widespread recognition that nuclear energy will feature in the future global energy mix and make its contribution to sustainable development, the World Energy Council says in a report published today.

The United Nations, the International Energy Agency and the World Energy Council are drawing global attention to the inherent qualities of nuclear power as a clean and reliable source of electricity. Now into its seventh decade, nuclear energy is seen by these and other prominent organisations as an existing and proven solution to the 21st Century challenges of climate change and a sustainable energy transition.