September 22-23, 2022
TerraPraxis attended the 2022 CEM13 and MI7 activities in Pittsburgh, USA and was invited to take part in high level sessions to discuss solutions for the most pressing challenges towards Net Zero and the potential role of advanced heat sources to reach this goal by 2050. The Global Clean Energy Action Forum (GCEAF) was a convening of more than 5,000 government ministers, clean energy advocates, and industry professionals focused on climate and energy.
This special session addressed the Nuclear Innovation: Clean Energy Future (NICE Future) initiative’s vision and strategies to lift up communities around the world with technical support and near-term, cutting-edge nuclear innovation. With a foreword from the International Youth Nuclear Congress.
Speakers presented diverse perspectives on opportunities to harness nuclear innovations that lift up communities around the world, particularly rising communities, and to bring rapid solutions to the twin climate change and energy security crises we now face. The event included two panels – one on perspectives of nations and their rising communities in the clean energy transition and another on building an action roadmap to accelerate these transitions. The event celebrated the sunsetting CEM NICE Future Flexible Nuclear Campaign (FNC) for Nuclear-Renewables Integration and announces the transition to the CEM NICE Future three-year Campaign to Research the Impacts on Social Equity and Economic Empowerment (RISE3) through nuclear innovation.
Kirsty Gogan was invited to moderate the Vision and Roadmap to Accelerate Clean Energy Transitions session.
As the world reduces its reliance on fossil-fuel based energy sources, there will be opportunities and challenges for communities where those sources are sited. Globally, many countries are recognizing that nuclear energy technologies can help enable a just and efficient clean energy transition by generating high-paying jobs and community tax revenues that could supplant those lost from retiring fossil fuel plants. However, building new assets and scaling the energy resources of a community is not without challenge. This panel will dig into how nuclear energy technology can benefit communities in transition while also looking realistically at the near and mid-term challenges to deployment including the policies, investments, and technical breakthroughs necessary for success.
This side event was a organised by the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, Idaho National Laboratory; Clean Air Task Force; ThirdWay; the Nuclear Energy Institute, and TerraPraxis under the Nuclear Innovation: Clean Energy (NICE Future) initiative within the Clean Energy Ministerial.
Hydrogen is expected to play an essential role as part of sustainable and resilient pathways to Net Zero. There is growing momentum among CEM countries for scaling-up the production of low-carbon hydrogen within this decade from low-carbon electricity and heat sources. All low-carbon sources of power electricity and heat - from renewables and nuclear energy - will be needed. Recent projects coupling nuclear power plants with electrolysers demonstrate pathways to success. This side event brought policy and industry leaders together to take stock of recent initiatives around the world and to discuss key policy measures that can foster integration of nuclear and renewables for scaling up low-carbon hydrogen.
