The European Council has adopted its position on the proposed Net-Zero Industry Act, which is intended to bolster Europe's manufacturing output in technologies needed for decarbonisation. As with the European Parliament's position, issued last month, nuclear power has been included in the list of "strategic" technologies.

The Net Zero Nuclear Industry Pledge, which commits to a goal of at least tripling nuclear capacity by 2050, was unveiled at an event at the UN's COP28 climate change summit taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Twenty two countries have signed up to the goal of tripling global nuclear energy capacity by 2050, at the UN's COP28 climate change conference.

Much progress has been made over recent years in the representation of nuclear in national, regional and international debates on energy and the climate, speakers agreed at the opening session of the World Nuclear Exhibition in Paris this week.

The nuclear energy industry will be highly visible at the 28th Conference of the Parties, taking place in Dubai over the coming weeks, World Nuclear Association Director General Sama Bilbao y León told delegates at the World Nuclear Exhibition 2023 in Paris.

The European Parliament has adopted its position on the proposed Net-Zero Industry Act, which is intended to bolster Europe's manufacturing output in technologies needed for decarbonisation. MEPs included nuclear fission and fusion among a list of 17 technologies covered by the legislation.

"A changing policy landscape is creating opportunities for a nuclear comeback," according to the International Energy Agency in the latest edition of its World Energy Outlook, with nuclear generating capacity expected to increase from 417 GWe in 2022 to 620 GWe in 2050 in a scenario based on existing energy policies.

As the International Atomic Energy Agency raises its projections for global nuclear generating capacity in 2050, speakers at the Agency's 2nd International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power said there are many challenges the nuclear industry needs to overcome to reach its full potential.

In an update to its Net Zero Roadmap, published in 2021, the International Energy Agency says the role of nuclear power has been revised upwards given recent policy support. In the updated net-zero emissions scenario, nuclear generating capacity reaches 916 GWe in 2050, up from the 812 GWe given in the 2021 version.

Nuclear will be essential for the world to accelerate its transition away from fossil fuels, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said at a New York summit this week. He also praised the recently launched Net Zero Nuclear Initiative - which has now welcomed GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy as its first corporate partner.

The nuclear industry has the solutions to assist end-users - from the shipping industry to data centres - in reducing their carbon emissions and meeting their decarbonisation goals, panellists at World Nuclear Symposium 2023 said.

World Nuclear Association and the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, with support from the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Atoms4NetZero and the UK government, have launched the Net Zero Nuclear initiative seeking "unprecedented collaboration between government, industry leaders and civil society" ahead of COP28.