World leaders are gathering in Brussels for the Nuclear Energy Summit to highlight the role of nuclear energy in meeting the global challenges of reducing the use of fossil fuels, enhancing energy security and promoting economic development.
Co-chaired by the Prime Minister of Belgium, Alexander De Croo, and the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Summit will be the highest-level meeting ever dedicated exclusively to nuclear energy.
Alexander De Croo, Belgium Prime Minister said, "We cannot waste time when it comes to fighting global warming. The challenge we face is enormous. The children require vast, safe and reliable amounts of carbon neutral energy. It will require a perspective for sustainable growth. It will require us to have our citizens and industries on board. It will require nuclear energy as part of the mix. One final word of gratitude for your leadership. We are proud to be your host. Thank you very much. "
Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), added: "Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Dear Alexander, thank you for hosting us for this first ever Nuclear Energy Summit. It is interesting to note that it took 70 years of commercial exploitation of a nuclear energy to have the first meeting at your level, at our level, at the level of world leaders, actors that we all know and you as leaders are dealing with every day in a collaborative way. As Alexander was wisely saying, this is not a beauty contest. This is a fight where we have to use all the available dispatchable CO2 free energy sources for the common challenge, which is to decarbonize our energy matrices as soon as we can."
Emmanuel Macron, French President concluded: "Thank you very much. President, prime ministers, dear, Alexander the Rafael, thank you. Our challenge is to deliver on climate change and reduce our CO2 emissions, to improve our sovereignty by securing our energy and it`s to improve our competitiveness in order to create jobs at the same time. And it`s true for all the regions of the planet being present here in this room. If you want to reconcile these three objectives, you need the relevant and consistent energy approach. Let me say that we can electrify our mobility, but if the electricity is produced with fossil fuel, it`s a stupid move. You can decide to make a big a move towards more electrification, but if you are totally dependent on complicated regions, let`s say in order to produce your own electricity, it could be a complicated move And we experience this type of vulnerability during the past few years. So how to reduce and produce relevant low carbon energy? For me is based on three key elements, efficiency and how not to consume energy, which is definitely the less expensive energy. So innovation and efficiency. Second, renewables, which is very smart way to produce low carbon energy, but it`s not pilotable matter of fact. And 3rd nuclear energy."
