A new letter from Vice-President Al Gore suggests a possible change in the U.S. position on nuclear power and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) at the COP6 international negotiations beginning today in The Hague, Netherlands.
The November 3 letter, faxed to Harvey Wasserman, senior advisor to the Washington-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and NIRS’ executive director Michael Mariotte, states a position contrary to that previously supported by the Clinton-Gore Administration.
Gore wrote, “I do not support any increased reliance on nuclear energy. Moreover I have disagreed with those who would classify nuclear energy as clean or renewable.” Gore said that the Administration’s legislation on electricity restructuring “specifically excluded both nuclear and large scale hydro-energy, and instead promoted increased investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy. It is my view that climate change policies should do the same.”
A key tenet of the Administration’s positionstated at a meeting in Lyon, France in Septemberhas been that nuclear power should be treated the same as renewable energy under the Clean Development Mechanism. The CDM allows developed nations to achieve greenhouse gas emissions reduction credits by providing low-emissions technologies to developing countries. This U.S. position is opposed by the European Union, and numerous other nations throughout the world, which have proposed a CDM that does not include nuclear power.
Gore’s statement that climate change policies should exclude nuclear power and large scale hydro-energy contradicts the stated U.S. position, and presumably indicates that the U.S. will change its position at the COP 6 talks beginning today.
“This is welcome news,” said NIRS’ executive director Michael Mariotte, who is in The Hague for the COP6 conference. “The previous U.S. position was indefensible on both environmental and economic grounds. We hope this means the U.S. now recognizes that allowing nuclear power to be equated with renewables and energy efficiency would simply be trading one environmental disaster for another, and wouldgiven nuclear’s huge costbe remarkably ineffective at reducing greenhouse emissions.”