One of the big question in the European Parliament Elections 2019 is sustainable energy. The liberal-conservative political party Moderaterna in Sweden has stated during their EU-election campaign that “Nuclear power is climate smart”. This is not totally true.
Moderaterna stated this slogan in different social media as Twitter and Instagram. The slogan is also reported about in different media, as Svenska Dagbladet.
For example, Jessica Rosencrantz, member of the Swedish parliament and representative of Moderaterna tweeted on 8th April that “Should we reach our climate goals and electrify our transports to make ourselves independent of fossil fuels, both nuclear power and renewable energy are needed”.
Referring to the recent IPCC report from 2018, parts of the report emphasize the importance of systematic change for EU 2030 climate goals of 1.5 degrees. The report translates into four main systems: energy, land and ecosystem, urban and infrastructure.
IPCC does not provide an exact solution to the issue, it does howewer show different ways how it could be solved.
Moderaterna says that we need nuclear power to reach the 1.5 degrees goal. In a debate, broadcasted by the Swedish public service tv, STV, on April 8th, the party leader of Moderaterna, Ulf Kristensson, said that we can not phase out the nucelar powers in Sweden in order to reach the climate goals.
The reason Moderaterna claims nuclear power as “climate smart” is because it is fossil free.
Due to the increasing electrification of society, more electricity needs to be produced. Moderaterna sees nuclear power as a solution to this and claims it should be the predominantly used source of energy in Sweden. The reason Moderaterna claims nuclear power as “climate smart” is because it is fossil free.
IPCC – yes or no?
Yes, nuclear power could be a solution to rising climate changes. But according to Joeri Rogelj, one of the authors of the IPCC-report “Global Warming 1,5 Degrees Celsius”, the report does not in fact say that IPCC prescribes any solution to the problem. On April 2th 2019, Rogelj stated in the Swedish magazine Sveriges Natur that he thinks many have misinterpreted IPCC:s latest rapport. Nuclear power is not stated as a necessity, but as one of many possibilities. “The IPCC has not claimed that we need a large increase in nuclear power. Saying this is a misinterpretation of the report”, Joeri Rogelj states in the article.
In a report of 2013 the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, SSNC, mentioned a lot of issues that nuclear power comes with. In the report “Finn fem fel på kärnkraften” SSNC lists costs, environmental harmfulness, the waste issue and accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima as some of the reasons to not go on with nuclear power.
SSNC also states that a energy system is not sustainable if it is not 100 percent renewable. This is also in line with The energy report 100% renewable energy 2050, written 2014 by World Wildlife Fund, WWF.
Conclusion
Nuclear power is in fact, as Moderaterna claims, fossil free but comes with too many non environmental consequences in order to be considered climate smart. We have tried to contact Moderaterna for a chance to reply to the information presented in this fact-check, but they declined to answer.
Purely factual, according to IPCC, SSNC and WWF’s reports, it is misleading to claim nuclear is “climate smart”.
We also contacted Jesper Gyberg, expert in environment and agriculture committee for Moderaterna, but he also declined to answer our questions. Therefore, the statement “Nuclear is climate smart” by Moderaterna should be considered mostly false.
Purely factual, according to IPCC, SSNC and WWF’s reports, it is misleading to claim nuclear is “climate smart”.
RESEARCH | ARTICLE ©: Susan Mokhtarian, Lana Zand, Linda Svensson Krupke, Stephanie Wilhelmsson
