A US House of Representatives committee has approved a bipartisan bill to support federal research and development (R&D) and stimulate private investment in advanced nuclear reactor technologies. The approval came as President Barack Obama said the country must move away from "dirty energy".

UPDATED Nations meeting at the United Nations COP21 climate change conference in Paris yesterday adopted a universal agreement on actions to combat climate change to keep the increase in global temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said today that governments serious about nuclear power should find the right frameworks to attract investors in order to overcome the challenges of large investments in liberalised markets.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) deputy director general Mikhail Chudakov has called on world leaders to consider nuclear power as an important contributor to a sustainable energy future at the COP21 climate conference in Paris.

Four leading climate scientists called for a major expansion of nuclear power as an essential measure to avoid dangerous man-made climate change over the next century. Speaking at the COP21 climate conference in Paris yesterday, James Hansen, Tom Wigley, Ken Caldeira and Kerry Emanuel urged world leaders to ensure that nuclear power is deployed alongside renewables.

India and Britain yesterday signed a civil nuclear agreement, reaffirming the importance of addressing climate change and promoting "secure, affordable and sustainable supplies of energy". The agreement was signed on the first day of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's three-day official visit to Britain.

There have been overall improvements across the three dimensions of the energy trilemma - energy security, energy equity and environmental sustainability - the latest Energy Trilemma Index from the World Energy Council suggests. However, WEC said countries face challenges in developing a balanced approach to their energy policy.

There are signs of a global energy transition, with low-carbon technologies expected to generate almost half of the world's electricity by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Nuclear's share of global electricity generation is set to remain around the current level.

A fundamental restructuring of the whole energy system is needed if the UK is to meet the so-called energy 'trilemma' of affordability, security and decarbonization, according to the Royal Academy of Engineering. It is essential that nuclear remains part of that system, it says.

Nuclear power can make a "significant contribution" to combatting climate change - "one of the most important environmental challenges facing the world today" - while providing energy for economic growth, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Despite a growing sense of urgency over the need for reliable low-carbon electricity sources, the developed world seems to have lost the art of taking difficult but necessary decisions, preferring to chase after dreams and shadows, writes Malcolm Grimston.

The United Nations (UN) working group tasked with negotiating a new universal climate change agreement has issued the first comprehensive draft of the agreement in the lead-up to the forthcoming COP 21 climate change conference.