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"All the evidence shows that nuclear power is too slow to build, too expensive, and it remains highly polluting and dangerous," one activist said.
An international coalition of environmental groups dropped banners and blockaded roads to protest the International Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels on Thursday.
While the summit, hosted by the Belgian government and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), pushes nuclear energy as a replacement for fossil fuels, more than 600 climate action groups launched a declaration calling nuclear power plants a "distraction which slows down the energy transition."
"We are in a climate emergency, so time is precious, and the governments here today are wasting it with nuclear energy fairy tales," Greenpeace E.U. senior campaigner Lorelei Limousin said in a statement. "All the evidence shows that nuclear power is too slow to build, too expensive, and it remains highly polluting and dangerous."
"The nuclear lobby camouflages itself beneath a climate-friendly facade, hoping to divert massive sums of money away from real climate solutions, at the expense of people and the planet."
At the United Nations COP28 climate conference in the United Arab Emirates last year, more than 20 countries pledged to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050. However, Greenpeace France calculated that achieving this would mean finishing 70 reactors each year between 2040 and 2050. This would be an unprecedented buildout in defiance of current trends: Between 2020 and 2023, 21 reactors were completed while 24 were shut down worldwide.
In the European Union specifically, many countries turned away from nuclear after 2011 in response to the Fukushima accident in Japan, according to Reuters. Germany shuttered its last three reactors for good in April 2023 following a successful anti-nuclear campaign there. In general, the nuclear share of the E.U. power mix dropped from 32.8% in 2000 to 22.8% in 2023, Greenpeace said.
Activists argue that nuclear still poses all the dangers the anti-nuclear movement has been warning about for decades and also cannot be ramped up quickly enough to prevent escalating climate extremes.
To reinforce this message, members of Greenpeace France blockaded the main roads to the Brussels summit using cars and bicycles. They also lit pink flares and threw pink powder as a motorcade of officials en route to the summit approached. The action succeeded in delaying the arrival of several delegations, Greenpeace E.U. said.
Other demonstrators dropped banners from the summit site at Brussels Expo reading, "Nuclear Fairy Tale," while a group representing the 600 declaration signatories protested in front of an inflatable bouncy castle holding up a sign reading, "Nuclear fairy tales = climate crisis."
The declaration was drafted by Climate Action Network Europe and signed by groups from at least 56 different countries and territories including Climate Action Network Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Sierra Club, Food and Water Watch, CodePink, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and several 350.org, Fridays for Future, and Friends of the Earth affiliates.
"The nuclear lobby camouflages itself beneath a climate-friendly facade, hoping to divert massive sums of money away from real climate solutions, at the expense of people and the planet," the declaration reads.
The signatories pointed out that, while the world must dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 in order to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, it would take longer than this for any new nuclear plant to come online.
At the same time, it costs significantly more money to increase nuclear capacity than renewable options like wind and solar, they stressed. A new reactor requires almost four times the funds of a new wind power installation.
"Governments need to invest in proven climate solutions, such as home insulation, public transport, and renewable energy, rather than expensive experiments, like small modular reactors, which have no guarantees of actually delivering," the declaration says.
It also points to safety risks across the nuclear lifecycle, from uranium mining to waste storage. And it adds that those dangers would only increase as temperatures rise.
"The climate crisis also increases the risks involved in nuclear power, as increased heatwaves, droughts, storms, and flooding all pose significant threats to the plants themselves and to the systems that aim to prevent nuclear accidents," the signatories argued.
Instead, the declaration proposes that governments focus on achieving 100% renewable energy while also improving efficiency.
"What we demand is a just transition toward a safe, renewable, and affordable energy system that secures jobs and protects life on our planet," the declaration concludes.
"Parties missed a pivotal opportunity for developed countries to walk the talk regarding their commitments to combating the climate crisis," one campaigner lamented.
Climate defenders admonished several rich nations for falling short of the $10 billion fundraising goal set for Thursday's Green Climate Fund Pledging Summit in Bonn, Germany, with the United States singled out for what one campaigner called its "glaring and inexcusable" failure to contribute this round, even as the climate emergency worsens.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF)—established in 2010 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to finance projects in developing nations to help them adapt to the climate emergency—presented an opportunity for wealthier nations to make new and increased pledges ahead of the U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP28, which begins November 30 in Dubai.
However, Thursday's summit raised just $9.3 billion, falling short of its $10 billion goal and coming nowhere near the $200-$250 billion the UNFCCC estimates is needed every year until 2030. Twenty-five countries promised to donate to the fund, with Denmark, Ireland, and Liechtenstein doubling their previous pledges.
Germany and the United Kingdom promised $2 billion apiece. France offered $1.7 billion, while Japan said it would contribute $1.1 billion. Australia, Switzerland, Italy, and Sweden said they were working on their commitments and would donate later.
The U.S.—which previously pledged $3 billion—also signaled its intent to contribute, but offered nothing on Thursday. China, the world's largest polluter, did not pledge.
"Time is not on our side. And promises made must be promises kept," Selwin Hart, special climate adviser to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, said in a statement following the summit. "This is the only way to rebuild the trust needed to confront the climate crisis."
Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at the advocacy group Climate Action Network International, said in a statement that "the Green Climate Fund, envisioned as the lifeline for climate action in developing nations, is held back by the indifference of wealthy countries."
"It's vital to underscore that public finance is key to ensuring vulnerable nations receive the support they need, particularly for boosting adaptation efforts," he stressed.
Singh continued:
While Ireland's 150% pledge increase is praiseworthy, the tepid commitments—or outright stagnation—from nations such as Japan and Norway are deeply concerning. Some countries, like Sweden, seem to sidestep their obligations by urging developing nations to contribute to the fund. The silence of the United States, even as it participates on the GCF Board and shapes policies without meeting its financial obligations, is glaring and inexcusable.
"With COP28 on the horizon, the GCF replenishment conference has fallen short of expectations," he added. "However, it's important to remember that nations are not restricted to making pledges only during set intervals; they can and should step forward with contributions at any time to support climate action."
Tara Daniel, senior program manager at the Women's Environment and Development Organization, said that "today, parties missed a pivotal opportunity for developed countries to walk the talk regarding their commitments to combating the climate crisis."
"As the flagship fund for implementing the Paris agreement, one that prioritizes adaptation as much as mitigation, and governed more equitably than multilateral development banks, the GCF is central to our collective efforts to achieve transformative climate action," Daniel asserted.
"Unfortunately, the pledging conference today showed that while climate impacts continue to increase, collective climate finance through the GCF has not increased," she lamented. "The U.S. in particular has failed to put any money where its climate rhetoric is."
"Yet the opportunity is not irrevocably lost; the pledging conference does not have to be the end of the road," Daniel added. "We wait to see if COP28 unlocks the ambition the world needs and deserves."
"The climate crisis is escalating but so is the global movement for climate justice. We need all hands on deck to win this fight."
As the United Nations climate talks in Bonn, Germany became the latest in a string of high-profile negotiations to end with little substantive progress, a coalition of environmental groups on Thursday announced plans for a global mobilization that organizers say will bring millions into the streets to demand an end to planet-wrecking fossil fuel production.
The worldwide protests are set to take place on September 15 and 17, days ahead of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres' September 20 Climate Ambition Summit in New York City and weeks before the crucial COP28 talks in the United Arab Emirates, which will be overseen by the CEO of one of the world's largest oil companies.
"The launch of today's escalation campaign to fight back against fossil fuels builds on the legacy of a diversity of resistance movements from across the world who have been leading the fight against the fossil industry and its pernicious influence," said Tasneem Essop, executive director of the Climate Action Network. "We expect all governments to implement a rapid, just, and equitable phaseout of fossil fuels together with a scaled-up phase-in of renewables."
"They have to signal that this is the end of the fossil fuel era," Essop added. "COP28 is a good place to start."
"We expect all governments to implement a rapid, just, and equitable phaseout of fossil fuels together with a scaled-up phase-in of renewables."
The coalition behind the mass mobilization invited people around the world to register local events and issued a list of straightforward demands that they say political leaders must embrace if there's to be any hope of curbing runaway warming.
"The climate crisis is escalating but so is the global movement for climate justice," the coalition says on its website. "We need all hands on deck to win this fight."
The six demands are as follows:
1. No new fossil fuels—no new finance public or private, no new approvals, licenses, permits, or extensions. The provision of sufficient, consensual climate funding to realize this commitment everywhere.
2. A rapid, just, and equitable phaseout of existing fossil fuel infrastructure in line with the 1.5°C temperature limit and a global plan, like a Fossil Fuel Treaty, to ensure that each country does its part.
3. New commitments for international cooperation to drastically scale up financial and technology transfers to ensure renewable energy access, economic diversification plans, and Just Transition processes so that every country and community can phase out fossil fuels.
4. Stop greenwashing and claiming that offsets, carbon capture and storage, or geoengineering are solutions to the climate crisis.
5. Hold polluters responsible for the damage they've caused and make sure it's coal, oil, and gas corporations that pay reparations for climate loss and damage and for local rehabilitation, remediation, and transition.
6. End fossil fuel corporate capture. No to corporations writing the rules of climate action, bankrolling climate talks, or undermining the global response to climate change.
Brenna TwoBears, coordinator of the Indigenous Environmental Network, said in a statement Thursday that "the time is now to end fossil fuels."
"This has been centuries in the making, when colonizers brought the first extractive systems to Turtle Island and commodified the land," she added. "But shutting down fossil fuels is only one strand among many to weave a basket to hold up the next seven generations. We need a just and equitable transition, where Indigenous people are leading. We need a culture shift to live in balance with our sky and land relatives. We need real solutions that address the problem at its root, not after the fact. A fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty is that real solution."
\u201c2/ As world leaders gather at the UN #ClimateAmbitionSummit in New York City this September, millions of people in every corner of the globe will take to the streets to demand a rapid, just, and equitable end to oil, gas, and coal. These are our demands:\u201d— Oil Change International (@Oil Change International) 1686837881
COP27 in Egypt late last year did not yield any meaningful progress toward a global fossil fuel phaseout, and campaigners feel COP28 is also poised to fail given the still-pervasive influence of the oil and gas industry and rich nations' refusal to act.
Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, COP28's president-designate, is the CEO of the UAE's state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
The Guardianreported last week that "Majid Al Suwaidi, director-general of the COP28 climate talks for its host nation... said governments were not in agreement over whether the phaseout of fossil fuels should be on the agenda for the conference, which begins in November."
"Al Suwaidi said fossil fuels would form a key part of the discussions at COP28," the newspaper added, "but whether a phaseout would be discussed as part of the official agenda of the talks was still up for grabs."
Romain Ioualalen, the global policy lead for Oil Change International, emphasized Thursday that "there is no room for additional fossil fuel expansion while limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C" and implored world leaders to "urgently lay the path for the end of oil, gas, and coal" at COP28.
"People around the world have been fighting against the fossil fuel industry for years and will escalate this fight this September at the United Nations in New York and beyond to secure a full, fair, fast, and funded fossil fuel phaseout and massive expansion of renewable energy," said Ioualalen.