The global rejection of nuclear power in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster has led to carbon emissions that are 6% higher than they otherwise would have been, the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) has said.
The 1986 incident had a significant impact on the construction of new nuclear power plants worldwide as it heightened public fears about the safety of nuclear energy and led to increased scrutiny and criticism of nuclear power plant designs and procedures. As a result, many countries became more cautious about building new nuclear plants, and some even decided to phase out existing ones.
The think tank estimates that global carbon emissions would have been 6% lower if energy grids had not instead opted to run on higher-carbon forms of energy generation like natural gas. It said that was roughly equivalent to taking 460 million passenger vehicles off the road for a year.
In a report, the TBI found that the recent proliferation of energy-hungry AI services was ushering in a massive “mobilisation...