Governments and industry should work together urgently to demonstrate and commercially deploy nuclear energy innovations before the window of opportunity closes to meet the world’s 1.5°C global warming target, the Nuclear Energy Agency said.

In a report on nuclear energy’s role in meeting climate change targets, the Paris-based body published new analysis which identifies the potential contribution of nuclear energy to clean energy capacity and emissions reductions between 2020 and 2050, taking into consideration the contributions from power and non-power applications of nuclear technologies.

Taken together, the contributions of long-term operation, new builds of Generation III nuclear technologies, small modular reactors, Generation IV systems, nuclear hybrid energy and hydrogen systems begin to reveal the full extent of the potential for nuclear energy and nuclear innovations to play a significant and growing role in pathways to net-zero by 2050.