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01 / 05
Takeaways from the UN Climate Conference

Blog Post | Energy & Environment

Takeaways from the UN Climate Conference

The summit revealed a growing realization that market-based solutions to climate change need to have a seat at the table.

Chris Barnard —

Summary: Chris Barnard attended the United Nations’ COP28 climate summit to advocate for market-based climate solutions. Despite hearing many unrealistic proposals, he returned optimistic, particularly due to the summit’s unprecedented focus on nuclear energy, and the recognition that market-driven innovation, rather than massive wealth transfers or rigid bans, is crucial for reducing global emissions and fostering prosperity.

I attended the United Nations’ COP28 climate summit in the United Arab Emirates last week to represent market-based climate solutions. While I heard plenty of unrealistic solutions to the climate challenge we face, I returned to the United States optimistic about the future.

As a climate advocate who believes in market competition, I can tell you that exporting US innovation, instead of succumbing to pushes for massive wealth transfers, is how we catalyze economic prosperity while reducing worldwide emissions. Many of the solutions at COP28, to be sure, focused on having the United States and other developed nations subsidize the world’s energy consumption or prematurely divest from fossil fuels. There was even a panel on “responsible yachting,” which is especially out-of-touch.

Yet, there was also a silver lining that we haven’t seen at previous COPs. This was the first summit at which nuclear energy truly played a central role. In Dubai, 22 countries, totaling more than 50 percent of global gross domestic product, pledged to triple their nuclear power production by 2050. In a similar vein, the nuclear industry had a much larger seat at the table than usual.

Though the usual climate activists criticized the industry having a larger seat, the fact that they were there shows a growing realization that tackling climate change is impossible without energy industry players at the table. Although several of my fellow conference attendees wanted to permanently excommunicate the energy industry from the conversation, the industry, fortunately, had a prominent voice at COP28.

We must realize that blindly throwing money at climate change, banning things, and picking winning and losing technologies will deliver the worst outcomes at the highest cost. Market forces are much better than central planning for lowering emissions—without destroying the economy—in developing countries that are the fastest-growing sources of emissions. Further innovation in the nuclear field, for instance, to drive down costs and increase efficiency would be a climate game-changer on the world stage.

Encouraging innovation is the best path toward rapidly and affordably cutting emissions, and the United States has been paving the way. It was encouraging, despite the conference’s flaws, to see this on display at COP28. I was able to watch sessions on the importance of carbon capture technology and private sector leadership—areas we don’t always hear about in the mainstream climate discourse.

The United States has led the world in reducing emissions because of innovation, specifically fracking and horizontal drilling that created a glut of cheap natural gas. Switching from coal to natural gas cuts carbon emissions. Building nuclear plants produces abundant clean electricity. The United States has led before, and we can do so again.

That’s why calls to stunt US economic growth by paying ever-greater sums to foreign countries are wrong. The answer is helping US innovators develop and deploy the cheapest and cleanest energy technologies so that they can be exported around the world. We shouldn’t predetermine what those technologies are. To reduce emissions, we’ll need carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, next-generation nuclear and geothermal energy, and possibly even technologies that haven’t been invented yet.

The way we facilitate this innovation isn’t by distorting the market with subsidies, regulations, or mandates. The way we facilitate this innovation is by getting the government out of its own way. That means permitting reform to make it easier to build energy projects, transmission reform to get more clean energy on the grid, and reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission so that the United States can take nuclear energy leadership back from autocracies like China and Russia.

Ultimately, we need an approach that lets the market pick the cheapest and cleanest alternatives that the United States can export around the world. That’s a win for our economy and the environment. It’s also the only serious approach to tackling the emissions problem.

Live Science | Energy Production

China’s “Artificial Sun” Shatters Nuclear Fusion Record

“China’s ‘artificial sun’ reactor has broken its own world record for maintaining super-hot plasma, marking another milestone in the long road towards near-limitless clean energy.

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) nuclear fusion reactor maintained a steady, highly confined loop of plasma — the high-energy fourth state of matter — for 1,066 seconds on Monday (Jan. 20), which more than doubled its previous best of 403 seconds, Chinese state media reported.”

From Live Science.

New Atlas | Energy Production

Molten Salt Nuclear Reactor in Wyoming Hits Key Milestone

“In Kemmerer, Wyoming, the Naughton Power Plant has been burning coal to provide electricity since the 1960s. But in September 2019, it was announced that the plant would be shut down by 2025 due to issues with operating efficiency and compliance with environmental regulations. Yet unlike other towns where coal plants get shuttered, Kemmerer won’t simply fade from the map. Instead, it is the site where Natrium, America’s first coal-to-nuclear project, is taking place…

TerraPower broke ground on Natrium in June of last year and, this week, the company announced that it received approval from the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council (ISC) for the first of the Natrium plants, known as Kemmerer Power Station Unit 1. According to the company, this makes them the first developer to receive a state permit for an advanced nuclear project in US history…

The ISC permit will only cover the development of the non-nuclear components of Natrium. The subsequent permit for the nuclear tech will need to come from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That body accepted TerraPower’s application last summer, so it might be some time until the project can move onto the nuts-and-bolts phase. Still, if the application gets approved as anticipated, it seems that reactor construction could begin in 2026.”

From New Atlas.

Financial Times | Energy Production

The Rise of Nuclear-Powered Batteries

“The nuclear industry is enjoying a renaissance as governments and big tech companies search for clean sources of power to meet their climate commitments. Dozens of projects are already under way to develop small modular reactors, which have capacities of up to about 300 megawatts. 

Microreactors have a much smaller output of up to 20MW, enough to power roughly 20,000 homes, and are likely to operate like large batteries, with no control room or workers on site. The reactors would be transported to a site, plugged in and left to run for several years before being taken back to their manufacturer for refuelling. 

Westinghouse in December won approval from US nuclear regulators for a control system that will eventually allow the 8MW eVinci to be operated remotely. The reactor, which has minimal moving parts, uses pipes filled with liquid sodium to draw heat from its nuclear fuel and transfer it to the surrounding air, which can then run a turbine to produce electricity or be pumped into heating systems.”

From Financial Times.

New York Times | Energy Production

Fusion Start-Up Plans to Build Its First Power Plant in Virginia

“Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a start-up founded by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said on Tuesday that it planned to build its first fusion power plant in Virginia, with the aim of generating zero-emissions electricity there in the early 2030s.

The proposed facility is among the first to be announced that would harness nuclear fusion, the process that powers the sun, to produce power commercially, a long-elusive goal that scientists have pursued for the better part of a century.

In theory, a fusion reactor could generate abundant electricity without releasing planet-warming carbon dioxide, and with no risk of large-scale nuclear accidents. But moving the concept out of the lab and onto the power grid has proved immensely difficult.

Commonwealth is the best funded of a crop of start-ups that are hoping to realize fusion’s potential soon. The company is first building a pilot machine in Massachusetts, one it says will demonstrate the feasibility of its technology in 2027.”

From New York Times.