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CBI: nuclear power has 'major potential'

Tuesday, 27 November 2007

British business has suggested 12 new nuclear power reactors for the country as part of a climate change strategy. In Climate change: Everyone's business, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) called for positive decisions on nuclear to be made fast.

The new report was unveiled on 26 November at the CBI's annual conference. The London event saw prime minister Gordon Brown assure business leaders a UK nuclear policy would be announced early in the new year, following the governments consideration of the recent public consultation.

The CBI's report was compiled by its Climate Change Task Force of 19 leading employers including RWE npower, BP, Shell, Siemens, Rolls-Royce, and the London Stock Exchange. Task force's chair and BT chief executive, Ben Verwaayen wrote in his foreword: "This report has not been written by evangelists but by business people."

In the power sector, legislation must be passed in the next year to enable some 25% of the UK's power generation infrastructure to be replaced in a timely manner. There must be a diverse range of low-carbon power sources. One of these could be nuclear power, said the CBI, with the construction of the first of 12 new plants starting in 2013, and one per year following that.

This would be a very low-cost way of avoiding carbon dioxide emissions. The report used similar assumptions to the government's recent white paper: saving one tonne of carbon dioxide by building nuclear would cost about Eur2. Saving the same by building onshore wind power would cost more like Eur62 per tonne.

Nuclear power was ranked as the joint-second most significant way to abate carbon emissions, with twice the potential of wind power or carbon capture and storage. Improvements to building infrastructure came first, with lighting and applicance efficiency equal to nuclear. The CBI saw 12 nuclear and 1600 wind generators as having "major potential" to provide about 50% of electricity by 2030, with 20 carbon capture and storage power plants adding more low-carbon capacity.

The CBI task force identified consumers as a primary force in transforming to a low-carbon way of life, firstly through their choice of lifestyle and purchases, which account for 35% of emissions. Furthermore, consumers could influence another 25% of emissions from retail, food, wholesale and agriculture. With the right information and incentives, consumers could create the right market for business to respond to, said the report.

However, these developments would only be possible after strong leadership from the government in setting appropriate frameworks of incentives for consumers and business. In addition, government must come up with a way to price carbon, and internationally a post-2012 international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions is essential.