The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, took advantage of her visit to the Climate Summit, COP29, to promote her project for the return and revitalization of nuclear energy. “Currently, there is no single alternative to fossil fuels. We must have a realistic vision,” he said in plenary session.
Meloni put all types of energy sources in the same drawer. He first assured that “we must use all available technologies, not just renewables”, then support “gas – which is a fossil energy – biofuels, hydrogen” or even “carbon capture” . Then he added “in the future, nuclear fusion”. Nuclear fusion is still a very distant horizon. What the European Union has recognized as “clean energy” is the current formula of nuclear fission with its radioactive waste and safety concerns.
A project to return to nuclear power plants
Italy no longer produces electricity with nuclear power plants. The country was one of the pioneers of nuclear energy, with four power plants, but after the Chernobyl accident (1986) and a referendum, it banned nuclear energy and permanently dismantled all its commercial reactors in 1990 . Meloni’s government is preparing specific legislation to reintroduce nuclear energy. reactors.
“It is also a priority that decarbonization takes into account our production systems and the sustainability of our social systems,” said the Prime Minister. An expression that fits quite well with what researchers call climate delay, that is to say not denying the existence of climate change, but rather making actions aimed at stopping it heavier by focusing on the economic consequences. or social aspects of these measures.
Meloni’s words seemed to be a counterpart to the intervention this Tuesday by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who warned: “Do not listen to those who say that the energy transition is incompatible with the well-being of the middle classes and popular because those “The middle and working classes will be those who will suffer the most because they are in the areas most affected by climate change”.
In the same vein as Giorgia Meloni, the words of Russian Prime Minister Mijail Mishustin were heard, who insisted that “the transition to low-emission energy must not compromise the development of low-income countries”. “Global warming should not be used as a pretext for unfair competition or to restrict activities,” he said.
