The essential energy questions at the beginning of the 21st century turn around two important points: the progressive exhaustion of fossil resources and the worsening of the greenhouse effect.
The combustion of fossil fuels (coal, oil and to a lesser degree natural gas) releases into the atmosphere significant quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the main gases responsible for the greenhouse effect. All scientists agree today that this increased concentration of greenhouse gases is responsible for climatic change, change that is perhaps natural, but is certainly accelerated by human activity.
These discharges are caused mainly by transport vehicles. However, the use of fossil fuels in the generation of electricity is also contributing to the worsening situation. Fossil fuels currently account for 80% of the electricity generated. And electricity generation is responsible for 40 per cent of those discharges into the atmosphere that are involved in changes in the greenhouse effect.
Nuclear energy therefore holds a considerable environmental advantage: it permits the production of very significant quantities of energy, without atmospheric discharges and without emission of greenhouse gases.
Nuclear energy and the renewable energies therefore have a major role to play in future years if we are to meet the obligations of the Kyoto summit, that is to say a reduction of 5.2% in greenhouse gases by the year 2010. |