Leaders from 34 countries met in Brussels, Belgium on March 21 for the first Nuclear Energy Summit. The purpose of the summit was to provide participating governments the opportunity to share their vision and plans for using nuclear power to achieve net-zero emissions and promote sustainable development.
Background
The summit came in the wake of the Global Stocktake, a comprehensive assessment of the world’s progress on climate action, and the December 2023 Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28). COP28 saw an increased focus on accelerating the deployment of nuclear energy, which was memorialized with more than 20 nations from four continents—including the United States, Canada, France, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom—signing a declaration to triple nuclear use between 2020 and 2050.
The Summit
The summit was jointly organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Belgium. It consisted of a series of speeches from the attending leaders, including China, France, Japan, and the US. Some nations, with little or no current nuclear power, used this time to ask for guidance and support in deploying and financing nuclear power. More nuclear-prominent nations used this time to express the importance and necessity of utilizing nuclear power to achieve global climate targets.
Following the series of speeches, attendees partook in four technical panel discussions on the practical steps needed to leverage nuclear energy’s full potential. The first panel focused on global, regional, and national perspectives influencing the deployment or prolongation of new and existing nuclear capacity.
The second panel focused on the industry’s technological advancements and innovations, such as new nuclear reactors, hybrid nuclear-renewable systems, and nuclear fusion technology development. The third panel discussed innovation throughout the nuclear fuel cycle and the life cycle of nuclear facilities, including spent fuel management, fuel supply chains, and decommissioning.
The last panel discussed financing nuclear power through investments for the clean energy transition, electricity market designs, industry incentives and subsidies, and the role of multilateral development banks and investment banks.
During the summit, 32 nations and the director general of the IAEA signed a declaration to, in part “reaffirm [their] strong commitment to nuclear energy as a key component of our global strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from both power and industrial sectors, ensure energy security, enhance energy resilience, and promote long-term sustainable development and clean energy transition.”
To achieve this goal, the nations pledged to “to work to fully unlock the potential of nuclear energy” through conditions that support the deployment and finance of reactors. This declaration has received global support, including from 20 nongovernmental organizations, such as Third Way, North American Young Generation in Nuclear, Nuclear Innovation Alliance, International Bank for Nuclear Infrastructure, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which signed their own letter of support for the declaration.
While nations expressed a desire for future summits, organizers indicated that it is unlikely to be an annual event.