'Alliance of Regions for Phasing out Nuclear Power across Europe' send strong signal to EU politicians

According to Commissioner Maroš ��efcovic, 2016 should be the year that the European Energy Union achieves results. Unfortunately, nuclear lobbyists and several EU Member States (including the UK and France, and a number of Central and Eastern European states) are using the negotiations towards the creation of an Energy Union to promote the use of nuclear power.

This is highly problematic for a number of reasons. Many studies have shown that the construction of new nuclear reactors in the EU has now become totally uneconomical and no longer competitive on the energy market. Current projects in Finland, France and the UK are very likely to cost far more than what was initially planned.

The costs of the projects are handed on to EU citizens, via subsidies. This can no longer continue.  

It is absolutely absurd ���� especially while the cost of renewable energy is falling ���� to continue investing in such a high risk technology. The EU should turn away from these dangerous and misguided energy investments, which would have serious consequences for decades to come.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster and the 5th anniversary of the Fukushima accident. These catastrophes rendered large swathes of land uninhabitable, robbed many people of their homeland and will continue to pose a health threat for an unforeseeable time to come. Indeed, 30 years on, work on tackling the consequences of the Chernobyl meltdown is still ongoing in Ukraine today.

This is precisely why the ����Alliance of Regions for Phasing out Nuclear Power across Europe���� has come together. At their first meeting yesterday, six German states, alongside Upper Austrian and the German-speaking community of Belgium, signed a declaration to send out a powerful signal opposing this mistaken, pro-nuclear path for Europe's energy policy. They are calling for the EU to instead embrace the great opportunity arising from energy transition and to decarbonise its energy supply by adopting energy efficiency measures and using renewables.

The Paris agreement signed last December can only be implemented by expanding our use of renewables and applying energy efficiency measures. The abandonment of fossil fuels must on no account be replaced by misguided investments in nuclear energy!

 You can read the declaration of the ����Alliance of Regions for Phasing out Nuclear Power across Europe���� Initiates file downloadhere (also available in Initiates file downloadFR and Initiates file downloadDE). For further material on the risks of nuclear energy, and why the Greens believe nuclear is not the solution to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, please visit https://stopclimatechange.net/energy/nuclear/