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LONDON - The International Energy Agency has urged governments to build more nuclear plants to slow climate change and increase energy security, throwing its weight behind the push for atomic power.
In its annual World Energy Outlook, a 596-page response to a G8 call for a sustainable energy blueprint, the agency said unless leaders took action world demand for fossil fuels would rise by more than 50 per cent, with carbon emissions.
Energy conservation and investment in nuclear power could cut consumption by 10 per cent by 2030, the IEA said, equivalent to China's energy use today. Carbon emissions would drop by 16 per cent, what the United States and Canada emit between them.
"We are on course for an energy system that will evolve from crisis to crisis," said Claude Mandil, executive director of the adviser to 26 industrialised nations. "That may mean skyrocketing prices, or more frequent blackouts."
By 2030, oil could soar to US$130.30 ($197) a barrel if energy investment and government policies fall short, the IEA warned.
A jump to a record near US$80 in July left consumer governments worried about their economies.
"The economics have moved in nuclear power's favour," it said. "Nuclear power offers considerable advantages in terms of avoiding greenhouse-gas emissions and of energy security."
It is the first time the IEA, set up after the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo, has backed nuclear power in such strong terms. This year's report devotes a whole chapter to nuclear energy.
The Paris-based agency said more than US$20 trillion must be invested in new energy supplies by 2030 to meet demand, up US$3 trillion from a year ago, mainly due to cost inflation.
But Greenpeace took issue with the IEA's argument.
"Investing in nuclear power is a sure way to lose the battle against climate change," Greenpeace campaigner Sarah North said.
"It costs up to 10 times as much as energy-efficiency measures to get the same carbon savings and creates huge security and environmental threats that will last for tens of thousands of years."
- REUTERS
