New study: Meeting carbon reduction goals economically means no nuclear power | GreenWorld

This is a short piece about a much longer piece that you will want to take a bit of time to read.

Actually, it is unfair to describe it as a “piece.” It’s a study, by Mark Cooper, who for years has been writing extensively about the transition to a clean energy future from an economist’s perspective. 

Cooper examines three recent studies taking different approaches to achieving deep decarbonization of our electrical system, two that reject nuclear power as part of the means of attaining massive carbon reductions and one that accepts nuclear power and fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage (CCS) as pieces of the approach. He then lays over that two recent studies of the economics of electricity generation, along with the political structure for attaining carbon reductions established by the COP 21 climate agreement, to reach his conclusions.

The central finding is this: the best way to achieve a carbon-free future from an environmental perspective is also the best way from an economics perspective. And the best way means rejecting nuclear power entirely.

In other words, a nuclear-free, carbon-free approach to a clean energy future is not only environmentally preferable–avoiding radioactive waste generation, environmental damage from uranium mining and the rest of the nuclear fuel chain, proliferation concerns, and the constant threat of more Chernobyls and Fukushimas, and so on–it is cheaper as well.

You probably already knew this–at least in your gut. Now you have the facts and figures to back it up.

Titled The Economic And Institutional Foundations Of The Paris Agreement On Climate Change: The Political Economy Of Roadmaps To A Sustainable Electricity Future, the paper is academic-oriented, with 63 footnotes, and can be at times rather dense. While not light reading, it is readable and well-supported.

Cooper places these findings in the context of the COP 21 agreement and argues that the nuclear-free, carbon-free approach (though he never uses that tagline) fits in perfectly with the agreement. Moreover, as the agreement stresses the urgency of addressing climate change and reducing carbon emissions, so does Cooper argue that from a purely economics perspective nuclear power cannot possibly meet that urgency. Therefore, expending resources on nuclear power (and CCS) would be counterproductive at reducing carbon emissions.

We’ve been saying that for years. Our thanks to Mark Cooper for providing the numbers, analysis and context that conclusively demonstrates that and points the way to our clean energy future.

You can download the study for free here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2722880

Michael Mariotte

February 11, 2016

New study: Meeting carbon reduction goals economically means no nuclear power | GreenWorld

Nuclear renaissance? Failing industry is running flat out to stand still - The Ecologist

Despite the endless rhetoric about a 'nuclear renaissance', there are fewer power reactors today than there were a decade ago, writes Jim Green. The one country with a really big nuclear build program is China, but no one expects it to meet its targets. And with over 200 reactor shut-downs due by 2040, the industry will have to run very hard indeed just to stay put.

Over the next 10-20 years, global nuclear capacity may increase marginally, with strong growth in China more than masking patterns of stagnation and decline elsewhere. Beyond that, the aging of the global fleet of power reactors will be sharply felt.

Ten new power reactors began supplying electricity last year (eight of them in China), and eight reactors were permanently shut down.

Nuclear power's 20-year pattern of stagnation continues. In 1995 there were 434 'operable' reactors - operating plus temporarily shut down reactors. In 2005 there were 441, and now there are 439.

Thus there are fewer reactors today than there were a decade ago. Moreover the 439 figure includes 41 reactors in Japan that have been shut down for several years, and not all of them will be restarted.

The nuclear power industry's malaise was all too evident at the COP21 UN climate change conference in Paris in December. Former World Nuclear Association executive Steve Kidd noted:

"It was entirely predictable that the nuclear industry achieved precisely nothing at the recent Paris COP21 talks and in the subsequent international agreement. ... 

"Analysis of the submissions of the 196 governments that signed up to the Paris agreement, demonstrating their own individual schemes on how to reduce national carbon emissions, show that nearly all of them exclude nuclear power. 

"The future is likely to repeat the experience of 2015 when 10 new reactors came into operation worldwide but 8 shut down. So as things stand, the industry is essentially running to stand still."

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, only seven out of 196 countries mentioned nuclear power in their climate change mitigation plans prepared for the COP21 conference: China, India, Japan, Argentina, Turkey, Jordan and Niger.

Now it's getting nasty...

more: Nuclear renaissance? Failing industry is running flat out to stand still - The Ecologist

2016 could be a transformative year | GreenWorld

If 2015 was the year that the ongoing global energy transition away from nuclear power and fossil fuels and toward a clean energy system based on renewables gained public notice, then 2016 naturally should be the year that the transition takes visible and meaningful steps forward.

Two critical steps that occurred in December ensure that the coming year is indeed likely to be that kind of pivotal, transformative period.

The first was, of course, the international COP 21 climate agreement, which–despite its flaws–will cause a global acceleration of the transition. The second factor, here in the U.S., was the five-year extension (and eventual phase-out) of tax credits for solar and wind power deployment. Both will combine to enable 2016, and the years immediately following, to attain milestone after milestone in the development of a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy system.

A third factor, by the way, also limited to the U.S. but related to the ability to achieve the COP 21 agreement, is President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.

But you don’t need to take my word for it; there are plenty of energy experts predicting the same–and also throwing out new ideas for how to make the transition even faster...

more: 2016 could be a transformative year | GreenWorld

Wind Power Guru: Nukes Fail to Gain Traction in Monumental Paris Accord

via ECOWATCH
by Harvey Wasserman

Paul Gipe is one of the world’s great Solartopian pioneers. His early work on wind power helped make the industry possible. His website publishes some of the most up-to-date and reliable information on the wind and solar industry. His books form the basic library for the progress of wind energy. His newest book, Wind Energy for the Rest of Us: A Comprehensive Gide to Wind Power and How to Use It, will be available in mid-2016.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

Based in Bakersfield, California, Gipe is known throughout the business as a brash, independent straight shooter with an incorruptible vision of a green-powered economy and how to best get there.

So when I interviewed him recently on my Solartopia radio show, I was curious to hear his reactions to the Paris accord, since some time has passed to let the dust settle.

But Gipe’s take on this landmark agreement comes from well outside the mainstream. Gipe is devoted to community-controlled energy and to the integrity of the green technologies that will take us there.

Gipe minces no words about the horrors of nuclear power. And recent reports of a rising death toll of “Nuclear Gypsies” being sacrificed at Fukushima have not made things any better.

But for Gipe, “Paris was a watershed event,” especially with the failure of the nuclear industry to gain real traction there.

Gipe said:

“The world, for the first time, agreed there is a problem with climate change and that we should do something about it. This occurred despite two decades of a sophisticated campaign to downplay and even deny that climate change was occurring.

“Further, several states, regions and provinces agreed for the need to put a price on carbon and numerous cities announced plans to meet 100 percent of their energy needs with renewables.

“There appeared to be a consensus that renewable energy’s time has come and that renewables are the future. Regardless of a massive lobbying effort by the nuclear industry there was a sentiment that nuclear is too little, too late and too expensive.

“Another indication of the success of Paris in drawing attention to climate change and need for action has been the shrill cry of right-wing shills for the fossil-fuel industry calling the event a ‘sham’ because COP 21 didn’t include binding targets. They know what happened in Paris and like cornered beasts are reacting with tooth and claw to slow or stop progress toward our renewable future.

“Of course, Paris could have done much more, but considering the opposition of the most powerful corporations on Earth and the nations that profit from the burning of fossil fuels reaching agreement on the need for action is historic.

“Quickly on the heels of Paris, the U.S. Congress, where the party in power in both chambers publicly denies climate change, voted overwhelmingly to renew and extend the subsidies for solar and wind energy. While the wrong policy, the vote revealed that the party’s rhetoric about its opposition to subsidies and subsidies particularly to renewable energy is simply a charade.”

Gipe concluded though that there’s ample room for skepticism. He said that there’s no doubting which way the future is going. The Koch Brothers with their fossil/nuclear investments have a lot of clout. But time is not on their side. And when the GOP sides with the renewable energy industry, it’s only because there’s sufficient financial clout to drive it there.

“There’s money to be made in renewables and a lot of it as the world moves toward renewable energy,” Gipe said. “Even the Republican party sees that.”

And if the Republican party is lining up even partially around renewables, the end for King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nukes & Gas) has surely drawn near.

Here’s my interview with Gipe:

Harvey Wasserman hosts the Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Show at www.prn.fm. He edits www.nukefree.org and his America at the Brink of Rebirth: The Organic Spiral of U.S. History will be published soon.

Wind Power Guru: Nukes Fail to Gain Traction in Monumental Paris Accord

Victory in Paris highlights a year of stunning setbacks for nuclear power – Let's keep it up in 2016! | Support NIRS!

December 20, 2015

Dear NIRS Supporter,

A few days ago, I got back home from the global climate change summit in France. It is more clear to me than ever that, despite all the odds, we are on the verge of winning the fight for a safe energy future. Yet again, the moral authority of people mobilizing around the world broke through to our leaders and forced them to do something they didn’t plan to do just a few days before: sign an agreement of nearly all the world’s nations with ambitious goals to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

And there is a piece of this we can own together. The first global climate agreement does not promote, endorse, or rely on nuclear power. Despite intense, incessant lobbying by the nuclear industry and the near-exclusion of anti-nuclear voices in the negotiations, our “Don’t Nuke the Climate!” message won the day.

At the climate conference, we watchdogged the negotiators, exposed the corporate corruption and lies, and delivered petitions from 524 organizations around the world opposed to nuclear power as a false solution to the climate crisis. And we joined the mass demonstrations in Paris on the last day of the summit, with a bright and visible presence.

Our job is not over. Far, far from it. Nuclear power promoters are going to keep on pushing in the coming years to divert the climate agreement into a radioactive free-for-all, both here in the U.S. and at the UN. There is also nothing in the treaty that prevents countries from going down the nuclear rabbit hole. But it’s clear we won this round.

Please support NIRS this holiday season and help ensure we win the next round too! Because we are a lean organization, your tax-deductible donation, of any size, doesn't cover bloated administrative costs--it goes where you want and need it to go: to our campaigns for a nuclear-free future.

With your help, we have had other important, hard-won victories this year. In August, not only did the EPA strip incentives for nuclear power out of the nation’s first real climate policy—the Clean Power Plan—it confirmed that renewable energy can replace nuclear power quickly and cheaply enough, and still reduce carbon emissions. The nuclear industry has hung its whole future on people believing the lie that nuclear power is our only hope to avert climate catastrophe. Getting the EPA to base America’s first real climate regulation on nuclear power was a fight they had to win. We stopped them in their tracks.

And the wave of reactor closures is growing! So far this fall, the permanent shutdowns of two more reactors were announced. Entergy says it will close its FitzPatrick reactor in New York in 2016, as well as the Pilgrim reactor near Boston as soon as 2017 or 2019. Along with closing Vermont Yankee at the end of last year, this means three dangerous Fukushima-style reactors are shutting down. NIRS has worked with grassroots groups to shut Vermont Yankee, FitzPatrick and Pilgrim for the last three years, and it proves what we can accomplish as a movement. With smart, strategic organizing and dogged grassroots activism, we can beat the nuclear industry and build a safe, sustainable energy future.

Nor have we forgotten about the other reasons nuclear never has been and never will be an acceptable “alternative” to fossil fuels. It is too dirty, and too dangerous.

We are gearing up for the big fight at the root of the industry: nuclear waste, the million-year legacy of a half-century of nuclear power. We mobilized thousands of people across the country this year to stop the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada. For the fourth year in a row, we blocked Congress from pushing their even more dangerous alternative to Yucca: consolidated “parking lot” storage sites for nuclear waste.

This fall, we launched a major “Stop Fukushima Freeways!”campaign to block mass transportation of nuclear waste across the country. The industry’s push for one or both of these terrible ideas—Yucca Mountain or “parking lot” dumps—will be even more forceful in the coming years. Some expect nuclear waste dumping to become Congress’ next Keystone XL project for attacking environmentalists. So we are laying the groundwork for that fight now, and building networks of local groups across the country to oppose the transportation of nuclear waste through their communities.

Despite our victory on the Clean Power Plan, the industry still has our leaders’ ears at the very top levels of government. And they are keeping the door open for the nuclear industry’s dirty deals and radioactive schemes. Just before the global climate conference, the White House hosted a Nuclear Power Summit in Washington, pushing the fantasy of radioactive solutions to the climate crisis. And on the first day of the Paris conference, President Obama held a press conference with a team of nuclear investors to promote their bankrupt vision. Even though the “Nuclear Renaissance” has utterly failed, the industry has still convinced President Obama to waste billions of dollars on this disastrous technology.

The industry’s rhetoric is getting increasingly desperate and personal. Climate-scientist-cum-nuclear-power-promoter James Hansen visited Paris--not to amplify the call for urgent and immediate climate action--but to step up his calls for "next-generation" nuclear reactors and for donors to stop funding environmental groups that are anti-nuclear. That's us. The industry also rolled out a new front group called “Nuclear for Climate,” which handed out thousands of copies of a book attacking anti-nuclear activists and blaming us for the climate crisis.

Send the nuclear industry and its backers a message: we won't be intimidated. Support NIRS with your tax-deductible donation today.

Needless to say, their efforts to intimidate activists are backfiring. In fact, they have given us a clear sign of how close we are to winning. Greenpeace International’s Kumi Naidoo reminded activists in a speech last week—in which he broadened the call for divestment to include nuclear, as well as fossil fuels—of the famous adage attributed to Gandhi about the path to victory:

First they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you.
And then you win.

While the nuclear industry’s shameless attacks are not proving effective, they are definitely not ignoring us or laughing at us. They are fighting us. And as long as we keep on fighting smarter, and harder, and with all of our passion and unity and vision for a safer, cleaner, sustainable and just world … we are going to win.

We look forward to celebrating more victories for a nuclear-free, carbon-free world with you in 2016. We rely on both your activism and your financial support to achieve these victories--we can't do it without both. We gratefully appreciate every donation, of any size, you can give us at the end of this year, to make sure we hit the ground running in the New Year.

No Nukes!

Tim Judson
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
timj@nirs.org

P.S. If you'd like to donate using PayPal, please use our Razoo fundraising site here. And if you'd prefer to donate by check, please make it out to NIRS and send to 6930 Carroll Avenue, #340, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Finally, you can also donate with your credit/debit card by phone during normal business hours by calling Denise Jakobsberg at 301-270-6477. Thank you so much!


Stay Informed:

NIRS on the web: http://www.nirs.org

GreenWorld: (NIRS' blog chronicling nuclear issues and the transition to a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy system) http://www.safeenergy.org

NIRS on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nuclear-Information-and-Resource-Service/26490791479?sk=wall&filter=12

http://www.facebook.com/nonukesnirs

http://www.facebook.com/groups/nukefreeclimatefreemarch/

NIRS on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/nirsnet

NIRS on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/nirsnet

Please note: NIRS never sells, rents, trades, or otherwise makes our e-mail lists available to other organizations or individuals for any reason. 


source: http://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5502/t/0/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=1351035

whats up: #BustTheMyth

you can't nuke global warming!

#COP 21 - Nous y étions pour clamer haut et fort "le nucléaire ne sauvera pas le climat" !

La COP 21 vient de s’achever. L’enjeu pour les antinucléaires : dénoncer l’instrumentalisation de ce processus par le gouvernement français et les industriels du nucléaire et contrecarrer la propagande d’EDF, qui avait lancé une vaste campagne de communication afin de faire passer le nucléaire pour une énergie propre. Pari réussi pour le Réseau qui en amont, et pendant la COP, s’est largement mobilisé, malgré l’état d’urgence et les manœuvres de l’État pour saper les actions prévues par les associations. Retour en images sur une campagne menée tambours battants ! *

more text: COP 21 - Nous y étions pour clamer haut et fort "le nucléaire ne sauvera pas le climat" ! | http://sortirdunucleaire.org (see that page for videos / more images below)

* The COP21 just ended. The challenge for antinuclear denounce the manipulation of the process by the French government and the nuclear industry and counteract the propaganda of EDF, which had launched a major communication campaign to go nuclear for clean energy. Mission accomplished for the upstream network that, and during the COP, has largely mobilized, despite the state of emergency and the state's maneuvers to undermine the actions planned by the associations. Back to images on a campaign drums beating!

more (INCLUDING VIDEOS): COP 21 - Nous y étions pour clamer haut et fort "le nucléaire ne sauvera pas le climat" ! | http://sortirdunucleaire.org

http://sortirdunucleaire.org

Nuclear lobbyists' epic COP21 fail. Our next job? Keep their hands off climate funds - The Ecologist

The nuclear industry has had a disappointing COP21, writes Jim Green. Lobbyists were there en masse desperately trying to get pro-nuclear wording into the Paris Agreement, and they failed. The word does not occur even once in the entire document. But we must prepare for the next battle: keeping nuclear power out of the $100 billion a year Green Climate Fund.

READ: Nuclear lobbyists' epic COP21 fail. Our next job? Keep their hands off climate funds - The Ecologist

The Paris Agreement on climate — a good start, but… | #COP21 :: #DontNukeTheClimate

Paris, December 12, 2015

The international Don’t Nuke the Climate campaign had two major goals for COP 21: 1) to ensure that any agreement reached would not encourage use of nuclear power and, preferably, to keep any pro-nuclear statement out of the text entirely; and 2) along with the rest of the environmental community, to achieve the strongest possible agreement generally.

The first goal was certainly met. The word “nuclear” does not appear in the text and there are no incentives whatsoever for use of nuclear power. That was a clear victory. But that is due not only to a global lack of consensus on nuclear power, but to the fact that the document does not specifically endorse or reject any technology (although it does implicitly reject continued sustained use of fossil fuels). Rather, each nation brought its own greenhouse gas reduction plan to the conference. “Details,” for example whether there should be incentives for any particular technology, will be addressed at follow-up meetings over the next few years. So it is imperative that the Don’t Nuke the Climate campaign continue, and grow, and be directly involved at every step of the way–both inside and outside the meetings.

As for the strongest possible agreement, well, it may have been the “strongest possible” that could be agreed to by 195 nations in 2015. By at least recognizing that the real goal should be limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Centigrade rather than the 2 degrees previously considered by most nations to be the top limit, the final document was stronger than many believed possible going into the negotiations. That said, the environmental community agrees that the agreement doesn’t go far enough and, importantly, that the commitments made to date do not meet even this document’s aspirations.

So what is in the agreement?  ...

more: The Paris Agreement on climate — a good start, but… | GreenWorld

whats up: #BustTheMyth
you can't nuke global warming!

Background Information on Climate Change and Nuclear Power - NIRS

December 1, 2015. Webinar on the grid of the future in Maryland, with Dr. Arjun Mahkijani of Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Corey Ramsden of Maryland SUN, and Jessica Azulay of Alliance for a Green Economy; moderated by Tim Judson of NIRS. How we can build a statewide grid that can support a system run on renewables and increased energy efficiency.

Video of webinar (mp4)

Powerpoint of Dr. Arjun Mahkijani, IEER.

Powerpoint of Corey Ramsden, MD SUN.

Powerpoint of Jessica Azulay, AGREE.

August 4, 2015. New report by Germany's Prognos AG for Agora Energiewende: Comparing the Cost of Low-Carbon Technologies: What is the Cheapest Option? Concludes, based on current experience in Germany and the UK, that a reliable system based on solar and wind with gas backup is 20% cheaper than a system with nuclear and gas backup.

June 30, 2015. Don't Nuke the Climate telebriefing: lessons from Japan and Germany. Featuring Amory Lovins and Tim Judson with Michael Mariotte moderating. mp3 file.

June 22, 2015. Pope Francis' Encyclical on climate includes several passages highly skeptical of nuclear power as a technology, and thus as a climate solution. Excerpts here.

June 17, 2015. Important new report from Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School's Mark Cooper: Power Shift: The Deployment of a 21st Century Electricity Sector and the Nuclear War to Stop It. Describes how the nuclear power industry is seeking consumer bailouts for its uneconomic reactors while working to undermine adoption of clean renewable energy.

December 1, 2014. 148 groups, thousands of individuals, tell EPA to remove nuclear power support from Clean Power Plan Proposal. Comments. Press Release. Additional technical commentssubmitted by NIRS.

more: Background Information on Climate Change and Nuclear Power - NIRS

On the ground at #COP21: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly … so far | GreenWorld

The nuclear industry is well-represented inside the conference hall; anti-nuclear groups haven’t been allowed to set up information booths.

Last Saturday, December 5, two NIRS staff arrived in Paris and joined anti-nuclear colleagues from across Europe for the United Nations climate conference. Officially, this is the 21st Conference of Parties on climate, or COP 21 for short. All year, we have been working as part of the Don’t Nuke the Climate coalition, preparing to mobilize thousands to COP 21 under the nuclear-free, carbon-free banner we flew at the People’s Climate March in New York City last year. That march was, in fact, the first wave of grassroots mobilization to fight for a strong, legally binding climate treaty. Especially with the conference happening in the most nuclearized country in the world, we’ve expected a major push to turn climate action into a feeding trough for poison power. And our expectations have not been disappointed.

Abandon #FalseSolutions at #COP21! We can save the #climate without poison power @sdnfr @nirsnet @beWISEnoNuclear pic.twitter.com/AvqbhEdCEE

— Tim Judson (@TimJudsonNY) December 9, 2015

The good news so far is that nuclear is not even mentioned in the drafts of the climate agreement presented over the last several days. There have been enough countries opposed to nuclear for there to be zero consensus on what to say about it: not a solution, not a problem, no clear direction at all. That might sound good, and is better than an agreement that promotes nuclear power.

But you wouldn’t know that by actually attending the COP. The nuclear industry and its governmental allies in the U.S., France, and elsewhere are here in force–with exhibit booths and events promoting nuclear power as a climate solution–whereas no explicitly anti-nuclear groups have been allowed to have an exhibit booth or hold an official event. Those decisions were made before the prohibition on public protests after the horrible violence on November 13 that have dampened the voice of protest outside the UN conference grounds. But they underscore the influence of corporate sponsors at the COP–like Electricite de France (EDF), the largest nuclear power company in the world. The industry is desperately trying to make itself seem relevant in the face of global stagnation, and avoid accelerating into rapid decline...

more: On the ground at COP 21: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly … so far | GreenWorld

more images from @NIRSnet twitter feed:

The nuclear industry’s COP 21 dilemma: 100% renewables is attainable | GreenWorld

If you think you’ve been seeing a lot more pro-nuclear propaganda in the media than usual in the past couple of weeks, well, it’s not your imagination. The nuclear industry and its champions are out in force, publishing articles and appearing in the media wherever and whenever they can in what may be a last-ditch effort to convince the world–or at least its leaders–that nuclear power is the answer, or one answer, to our climate crisis. As one writer put it yesterday, “At the Paris Climate Summit (COP21), the global nuclear lobby is in overdrive.”

If it all smacks a bit of desperation–and a lot of the pro-nuke pieces out there right now verge on the hysterical, with blatant attacks on those of us who envision a clean energy future–well, that’s not your imagination either. That’s because there is no global consensus on nuclear power. Some nations are against it entirely while a relatively few others are ardently pro-nuclear, with most–including the U.S.–somewhere in-between. And that means, by the very nature of the COP 21 talks, that nuclear isn’t getting what the industry needs; indeed, so far at least, nuclear is simply a non-factor...

more: The nuclear industry’s COP 21 dilemma: 100% renewables is attainable | GreenWorld

!! The nuclear industry is trying to hijack the Paris Climate Summit | #COP21

The new Breakthrough Energy Coalition, backed by billionaires such as Bill Gates and supported by the global nuclear lobby is hijacking climate talks at COP21, writes Noel Wauchope.

At the Paris Climate Summit (COP21), the global nuclear lobby is in overdrive.

The centrepiece of today's global nuclear lobbying is the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, led by Bill Gates, made public at the start of the conference.

Bill Gates announced the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, uniting the efforts of two dozen other billionaire philanthropists such as Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, to sponsor research into energy that doesn’t produce carbon.

Gates was present in Paris together with U.S. President Barack Obama —  the White House is reported to be supportive of the initiative. Article after article in the U.S. and other media outline the purpose of this group, stressing renewable initiatives, or rather, "clean" energy initiatives. Nuclear power is not mentioned but is tacitly included in that weasel word, "clean". 

More about the Breakthrough Energy Coalition later. But what else is happening in Paris at COP21? 

Well, the nuclear lobby is out in force, appearing on various kinds of media and in amongst the gathering, handing out thousands of free copies of its pro-nuclear propaganda book, Climate Gamble...

more: The nuclear industry is trying to hijack the Paris Climate Summit

INSANITY: China has an awful safety record — and wants to run 110 nuclear reactors by 2030 - The Washington Post

It had been about a month since chemical explosions blasted and burned through the port of Tianjin, killing 173. Pictures of rescue workers in hazmat suits became some of the signature images of the disaster. And despite incredible censorship, it was clear to most that unsafe chemical storage — thanks to bribery by local big shots — was to blame.

Still, on Sept. 15, China's Ministry of Environmental Protection announced post-Tianjin nuclear safety checks to "make sure nuclear facilities and equipment are safe and under control." Given the timing, it felt less like an assurance than an afterthought: "We definitely did not forget to check those nukes..."

more: China has an awful safety record — and wants to run 110 nuclear reactors by 2030 - The Washington Post

Complaint Filed Against French State Utility EDF- #COP21 Sponsor for False Advertising

Video published on Oct 22, 2013 - members of the public show EDF & govt what they think of nuclear energy policy in the UK and their proposed Hinkley C reactors.

DECEMBER 1, 2015: Based on translation of Sortir du Nucléaire press release, with our additional commentary in brackets:
Greenwashing for COP21: EDF lies will not save the climate!

At the approach of COP21 French State owned EDF, official sponsor of that event, launched a big publicity campaign to present itself as the “Official Partner of a Low Carbon World”. The campaign glorifies their electricity production, which they allege is 98% CO2 free, due to nuclear power. 

To denounce this false advertising, the “Sortir du nucléaire” [Nuclear Exit] Network filed a complaint before the Advertising Ethics Jury and brought a civil liability suit against EDF before the Tribunal de grande instance of Pari [Paris Tribunal-Court]

EDF is not a “Low Carbon World Partner”!

In the context of the COP 21 world climate conference, being held in Paris [30 Nov to 11 Dec. 2015], EDF is trying to present itself as a virtuous player in the fight against climate change. 

In reality, EDF operates 16 coal plants and is ranked the 19th worst greenhouse gas emitter in the world! EDF pretends to act “all over where [it] is present” for carbon free electricity. How can one not to be scandalized by that affirmation, when one knows that EDF’s world emissions represent 80 million tonnes of CO2 per year? [1]

EDF is lying: its electricity is not “98% CO2-free”!

MORE: Complaint Filed Against French State Utility EDF-Climate Conference Sponsor for False...

COP21 :: Events in Paris | Wise International Don’t Nuke the Climate Campaign

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) will be held in Paris from 30 November to 11 December 2015. But that’s not the only thing happening in Paris in those two weeks.

Following the attacks in Paris of November 13th, the French government has prohibited mass mobilisation. It is terrible what has happened, but this is not the time to silence the voice of the people. We will be present.

[Below] a list of the activities the Don’t Nuke the Climate campaign will be offering...

>>> Events in Paris | Wise International

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