After 25 countries at the end of last year He committed himself After the climate summit, which aimed to triple the world's nuclear capacity by 2050, the next big announcement came in the last few days, which could provide the funding behind a broad commitment to support carbon-free energy production.
At the Climate Week event held in New York, 14 banks and financial institutions, considered global giants, announced their support for the nuclear initiative to support nuclear projects with their expertise, services and solutions.
the American banker Refers to: Adding to the importance of the commitment was the fact that John Podesta, the US President's Senior Advisor for International Climate Policy, participated in the event, and he also stressed the importance of nuclear energy in achieving climate goals. Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch highlighted the importance of financing models, including state-backed loans.
“New nuclear power is clean, safe and, most importantly, proven,” said James Schaefer, senior managing director at Guggenheim Securities. He added that accelerating projects is critical given the growing energy demand for data centers and artificial intelligence technologies.
This is far from just a commitment by the giant American banks.once ago World Nuclear News From his report, the list of 14 institutions also includes Middle Eastern and European banks. That's all. The list of banks that signed the announcement is: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Ares Management, Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Brookfield, Citi, Credit Agricole CIB, Goldman Sachs, Guggenheim Securities, Morgan Stanley, Rothschild & Co, Sigra Capital Management and Societe Generale.
According to nuclear experts The Bank’s commitment now represents a long-overdue recognition of the critical role this sector plays in the transition to low-carbon energy. The background to this is that the difficulties and high costs of financing nuclear projects have so far hampered the construction of new power plants and contributed to a significant slowdown in capacity growth in Western countries after a wave of reactor construction that began in the 1970s and 1980s.
That's why George Borovas, head of the nuclear practice at Hunton Andrews Kurth and a board member of the World Nuclear Association, Talk about a turning point For the Financial Times:
This event is a game changer.
He says banks have so far found it politically difficult to back new nuclear projects, often requiring approval at CEO level. “Banks at the top have said we don’t understand anything about nuclear. All we know is that it’s very difficult and very controversial,” he said. The bank’s support could help normalize nuclear as “part of the solution to climate change” rather than a “necessary evil,” he said.
According to the newspaper, he is committed to nuclear energy. Banks can support new power plants by increasing direct lending and project finance to nuclear companies, arranging bond sales or referring companies to private equity or debt funds.
The article notes that financial institutions have long been divided on nuclear power, both because of the complexity of project financing and the high level of risk, but also because it is questionable whether nuclear power meets environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. They remind him that The World Bank and other multilateral institutions do not provide financing for nuclear projects.
Among the 14 banks is the French bank BNP Paribas, which, in reference to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, indicated to the newspaper that “There is no scenario” in which the world can achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 without nuclear power. According to Barclays, the role of nuclear energy lies in eliminating the intermittency of wind and solar energy.
The current production capacity of the wire, and at the same time, the low carbon footprint is also important from the point of view of the needs of large technology companies. This is evidenced by the fact that Microsoft last week signed a 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy to restart the 835-megawatt nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. The newspaper notes that Oracle co-founder and chief technology officer Larry Ellison said in September that the company was planning to build a massive data center that would require approval for three small modular nuclear reactors.
James Schaefer of Guggenheim Securities noted in this regard:
As we see that these are [technológiai] Companies start backing up their nuclear investment claims with contracts, and the whole process starts with that.
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