Contribution
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan) for securing such an important and timely debate.
The world has slowly come round to the fact that there is no net zero without nuclear. COP28 was a milestone for the industry, with the conference formally recognising for the first time the crucial role nuclear will play in tackling climate change. Twenty countries, including the UK, committed to tripling nuclear energy capacity by 2050.
The recognition of the role of nuclear in tackling climate change was long overdue. Nuclear is the only large-scale, low-carbon energy source that can operate 24/7. Its ability to provide constant, reliable baseload power at scale allows it to complement more intermittent renewable energy sources, because we need the lights on, even when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow.
Nuclear also has a critical role to play in decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors of industry. As we approach the last two decades of our mission to reach net zero by 2050, the challenge of decarbonising sectors such as steel, cement and heavy chemicals will receive more and more attention in this place. We are also waking up to the fact that revolutionary technologies such as artificial intelligence, which will play such an important role in economic growth globally and here in the UK, will require vast amounts of energy. Those challenges will only increase the importance of nuclear and the sheer volume of low-carbon power and heat it can produce.
The Sizewell C project here in the UK is a great demonstration of what nuclear can achieve. Plans have been drawn up to use power from the station, when the needs of the grid have been met, to produce hydrogen, which can go towards reducing emissions by means of clean transport and machinery, and direct air capture, a critical part of Britain’s net zero road map.
Aside from clean energy production, nuclear plays a vital role in economic growth and provides high-quality jobs around the world. Here in the UK, the nuclear industry supports nearly 90,000 direct jobs, including 16,000 in my own constituency. It contributes nearly £6 billion in added value to our economy, and provides a pathway to a just transition that creates rather than cuts jobs.
With COP28 having been the moment when the world recognised the role that nuclear can play, COP29 needs to be the moment when we agree on how to make that happen. There are three barriers that need to be addressed, and the first is financing. Nuclear power plants have historically found it difficult to attract funding, given the upfront capital involved. The move to include nuclear in the EU’s green taxonomy is welcome, and the UK should seek to mirror it. Our own green taxonomy is still waiting to be published, after multiple delays under the last Government. The inclusion of nuclear, when it is published, is imperative to mobilise the capital needed to deliver our nuclear ambition.
Secondly, the conference needs to examine the role of regulation and Governments, ensuring that we keep standards extremely high and focus on speed in our planning processes. Despite their designs being exactly the same, Sizewell C’s environmental impact assessment was 30% longer than that of Hinkley Point C, reaching over 40,000 pages. Global co-operation on regulation and standards could unlock much faster roll-out of nuclear technologies. Regulators from economies with developed nuclear sectors, such as the Office for Nuclear Regulation in the UK and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the US, should be working together closely to cut the time it takes to approve new technologies and designs.
Thirdly, the Government should continue to focus on how they can support technologies such as advanced modular reactors and fusion programmes. Government support and global co-operation on research and development on those technologies can speed up economic growth and bring about research into their deployment much more quickly, as well as putting the UK at the forefront of such development.
I encourage the Government to include those considerations as part of their priorities for COP29, but I also encourage them to consider this: it is becoming increasingly difficult for Britain to be an influential, respected voice on nuclear energy, given that we have not allowed our nuclear sector to grow. Dithering by the previous Government has stalled our nuclear industry, and next year will mark 30 years since we successfully completed a new nuclear power station.