Is Nuclear Energy Clean? (And Are We Ready For It?)
by Elissa Tennant
NOTE: At the time of posting, July 2025, this blog contains the most accurate and up to date information available. Nuclear energy is an evolving industry and certain statistics and legislative actions will change with the passing of time. We will continue to update this blog as needed.
The last decade has seen a major push, both globally and in the U.S., for clean energy sources. According to the UN, fossil fuels still account for the majority of global energy production, but renewables are gaining ground. Currently, around 29% of electricity worldwide is generated from renewable sources. In the U.S., solar power and electric vehicle sales broke records in both 2023 and 2024 and we officially reached our 200th clean energy manufacturing site.
As the planet transitions from fossil fuels to clean energy to reduce our carbon emissions, countries all over the world are searching for ideal sources of sustainable, renewable power. Of the available options, nuclear has emerged as a controversial but potentially powerful player.
Nuclear energy could be a major clean energy solution, there are significant hurdles before we can scale it responsibly and effectively. High upfront costs, nuclear waste management, regulatory hurdles, and, especially, public perception of safety after major incidents like Chernobyl have prevented all-in investment in America’s nuclear power. It’s a promising solution, but are we truly ready for it?
What is “clean” energy?
Clean energy is defined as energy sources that create low or no carbon emissions and cause minimal impact to the environment. Examples of commonly accepted clean energy sources include:
- Solar
- Wind
- Hydroelectric
- Geothermal
Nuclear energy is generally more controversial than other energy sources, but is still considered clean because it does not produce carbon pollution during operation. At the moment, despite roadblocks, nuclear energy provides about 20% of the nation’s electricity. It’s unclear if this number will grow or shrink in the coming years.
Is Nuclear Energy Actually Clean?
Yes, nuclear energy is a source of clean power, but like any source of energy, it comes with pros and cons.
Pros of Nuclear Energy
- No carbon emissions during operation
- High energy output with small physical footprint
- Reliable, baseload energy (unlike intermittent renewables)
- In some areas, infrastructure and technology for nuclear are already in place
- Advancements in small modular reactors (SMRs) and next-gen designs show promise
Cons of Nuclear Energy
- Nuclear waste and its long-term management
- Small but existing risk of dangerous failure
- Energy- and resource-intensive construction and decommissioning
- High cost and long timelines for plant development.
- Like any source of renewable energy, nuclear also faces public resistance and political roadblocks.
The Case for Nuclear Energy
Nuclear energy is a clean, reliable, and scalable solution. Its emission-free power generation and potential to meet growing U.S. energy demands in the long-term make it a strong alternative to fossil fuels. In France, nuclear energy already accounts for 70% of the nation’s power supply!
In a 2023 study, Potential Energy Coalition found high global support surrounding nuclear energy adoption, backed by the following conclusions:
- There is strong support for advanced nuclear in every country tested, with an average of five supporters for every opponent.
- Environmental group members are strong supporters of advanced nuclear.
- Younger people are particularly receptive to nuclear energy.
- Support for advanced nuclear power is not political and comes from almost all parties.
Clearly, the overarching con around nuclear power is not its public perception. Its major drawback is high costs and long turnaround times. Right now, the U.S. needs near-term solutions to reduce our carbon pollution, and nuclear is likely to be more of a long-term solution.
Nuclear Tax Credits in the U.S.
To make the investment in nuclear worthwhile, the federal government needs to provide the right financial incentives. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provided tax credits for investments in clean energy, including nuclear power. However, the recent budget reconciliation bill phases these credits out, adding another layer to the difficulty of implementing and building nuclear projects.
Without these incentives, the financial feasibility of nuclear projects becomes more difficult. There are other relevant policies we can implement to make nuclear investment worth the effort, like streamlining the licensing and permitting processes, but we need proper incentives to make nuclear energy viable. If the federal government does not offer support, we need other ways to encourage private investment and innovation in the nuclear sector.
Are we Actually Ready for Nuclear Energy?
Yes and no. We face major limitations in the U.S., namely high costs without subsidies, but we can make major changes. Getting “better” at nuclear would look like:
- A streamlined permitting approval process.
- Investment in research and development (R&D) for safer, cheaper reactors.
- Transparent, long-term waste management strategies.
- Public engagement and education to build trust.
- Continued investment in fusion.
Despite short-term limitations, it’s essential to plan and invest in advanced nuclear energy now. Any delays in implementation may impact efforts to reduce pollution in the future, and a long-term solution is better than nothing at all.
Like any renewable energy source, nuclear is not the solution to all our problems, but it can be a valuable tool. We need a holistic clean energy mix, but it will be significantly more difficult to reach our clean energy and climate targets without financial incentives for clean energy investments like nuclear.
We need to push for innovation, demand smarter regulation and stay informed on the latest in nuclear technology. Only then will we know: Are we ready to embrace nuclear energy—or just fascinated by its potential?
How to Take Action on Climate Change NOW
To make the clean energy transition a reality, individuals, businesses, and policymakers collectively must work together and invest in and support renewable energy initiatives. These long-term solutions are what will protect the health of our climate.
To get us there, you can also take action right now:
Volunteer for the environment locally or Volunteer worldwide
Electrify your home with clean energy
Write or Call Congress and let them know which policy you support
Attend one of our climate change conferences this year
Support candidates and policies that advocate for clean energy infrastructure and permitting reform
Encourage local and state-level clean energy projects
Join one of our weekly Informational Webinars and learn what Citizens’ Climate Lobby is all about
We welcome students, seniors, and everyday citizens to join us and thousands of volunteers around the world in our collective goal of climate action!
The post Is Nuclear Energy Clean (And Are We Ready For It)? appeared first on Citizens' Climate Lobby.
Drought and heatwaves occurring together – known as “compound” events – have “surged” across the world since the early 2000s, a new study shows.
Compound drought and heat events (CDHEs) can have devastating effects, creating the ideal conditions for intense wildfires, such as Australia’s “Black Summer” of 2019-20 where bushfires burned 24m hectares and killed 33 people.
The research, published in Science Advances, finds that the increase in CDHEs is predominantly being driven by events that start with a heatwave.
The global area affected by such “heatwave-led” compound events has more than doubled between 1980-2001 and 2002-23, the study says.
The rapid increase in these events over the last 23 years cannot be explained solely by global warming, the authors note.
Since the late 1990s, feedbacks between the land and the atmosphere have become stronger, making heatwaves more likely to trigger drought conditions, they explain.
One of the study authors tells Carbon Brief that societies must pay greater attention to compound events, which can “cause severe impacts on ecosystems, agriculture and society”.
Compound events
CDHEs are extreme weather events where drought and heatwave conditions occur simultaneously – or shortly after each other – in the same region.
These events are often triggered by large-scale weather patterns, such as “blocking” highs, which can produce “prolonged” hot and dry conditions, according to the study.
Prof Sang-Wook Yeh is one of the study authors and a professor at the Ewha Womans University in South Korea. He tells Carbon Brief:
“When heatwaves and droughts occur together, the two hazards reinforce each other through land-atmosphere interactions. This amplifies surface heating and soil moisture deficits, making compound events more intense and damaging than single hazards.”
CDHEs can begin with either a heatwave or a drought.
The sequence of these extremes is important, the study says, as they have different drivers and impacts.
For example, in a CDHE where the heatwave was the precursor, increased direct sunshine causes more moisture loss from soils and plants, leading to a drought.
Conversely, in an event where the drought was the precursor, the lack of soil moisture means that less of the sun’s energy goes into evaporation and more goes into warming the Earth’s surface. This produces favourable conditions for heatwaves.
The study shows that the majority of CDHEs globally start out as a drought.
In recent years, there has been increasing focus on these events due to the devastating impact they have on agriculture, ecosystems and public health.
In Russia in the summer of 2010, a compound drought-heatwave event – and the associated wildfires – caused the death of nearly 55,000 people, the study notes.
The record-breaking Pacific north-west “heat dome” in 2021 triggered extreme drought conditions that caused “significant declines” in wheat yields, as well as in barley, canola and fruit production in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, says the study.
Increasing events
To assess how CDHEs are changing, the researchers use daily reanalysis data to identify droughts and heatwaves events. (Reanalysis data combines past observations with climate models to create a historical climate record.) Then, using an algorithm, they analyse how these events overlap in both time and space.
The study covers the period from 1980 to 2023 and the world’s land surface, excluding polar regions where CDHEs are rare.
The research finds that the area of land affected by CDHEs has “increased substantially” since the early 2000s.
Heatwave-led events have been the main contributor to this increase, the study says, with their spatial extent rising 110% between 1980-2001 and 2002-23, compared to a 59% increase for drought-led events.
The map below shows the global distribution of CDHEs over 1980-2023. The charts show the percentage of the land surface affected by a heatwave-led CDHE (red) or a drought-led CDHE (yellow) in a given year (left) and relative increase in each CDHE type (right).
The study finds that CDHEs have occurred most frequently in northern South America, the southern US, eastern Europe, central Africa and south Asia.
Threshold passed
The authors explain that the increase in heatwave-led CDHEs is related to rising global temperatures, but that this does not tell the whole story.
In the earlier 22-year period of 1980-2001, the study finds that the spatial extent of heatwave-led CDHEs rises by 1.6% per 1C of global temperature rise. For the more-recent period of 2022-23, this increases “nearly eightfold” to 13.1%.
The change suggests that the rapid increase in the heatwave-led CDHEs occurred after the global average temperature “surpasse[d] a certain temperature threshold”, the paper says.
This threshold is an absolute global average temperature of 14.3C, the authors estimate (based on an 11-year average), which the world passed around the year 2000.
Investigating the recent surge in heatwave-leading CDHEs further, the researchers find a “regime shift” in land-atmosphere dynamics “toward a persistently intensified state after the late 1990s”.
In other words, the way that drier soils drive higher surface temperatures, and vice versa, is becoming stronger, resulting in more heatwave-led compound events.
Daily data
The research has some advantages over other previous studies, Yeh says. For instance, the new work uses daily estimations of CDHEs, compared to monthly data used in past research. This is “important for capturing the detailed occurrence” of these events, says Yeh.
He adds that another advantage of their study is that it distinguishes the sequence of droughts and heatwaves, which allows them to “better understand the differences” in the characteristics of CDHEs.
Dr Meryem Tanarhte is a climate scientist at the University Hassan II in Morocco, and Dr Ruth Cerezo Mota is a climatologist and a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Both scientists, who were not involved in the study, agree that the daily estimations give a clearer picture of how CDHEs are changing.
Cerezo-Mota adds that another major contribution of the study is its global focus. She tells Carbon Brief that in some regions, such as Mexico and Africa, there is a lack of studies on CDHEs:
“Not because the events do not occur, but perhaps because [these regions] do not have all the data or the expertise to do so.”
However, she notes that the reanalysis data used by the study does have limitations with how it represents rainfall in some parts of the world.
Compound impacts
The study notes that if CDHEs continue to intensify – particularly events where heatwaves are the precursors – they could drive declining crop productivity, increased wildfire frequency and severe public health crises.
These impacts could be “much more rapid and severe as global warming continues”, Yeh tells Carbon Brief.
Tanarhte notes that these events can be forecasted up to 10 days ahead in many regions. Furthermore, she says, the strongest impacts can be prevented “through preparedness and adaptation”, including through “water management for agriculture, heatwave mitigation measures and wildfire mitigation”.
The study recommends reassessing current risk management strategies for these compound events. It also suggests incorporating the sequences of drought and heatwaves into compound event analysis frameworks “to enhance climate risk management”.
Cerezo-Mota says that it is clear that the world needs to be prepared for the increased occurrence of these events. She tells Carbon Brief:
“These [risk assessments and strategies] need to be carried out at the local level to understand the complexities of each region.”
The post Heatwaves driving recent ‘surge’ in compound drought and heat extremes appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Heatwaves driving recent ‘surge’ in compound drought and heat extremes
Greenhouse Gases
DeBriefed 6 March 2026: Iran energy crisis | China climate plan | Bristol’s ‘pioneering’ wind turbine
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Energy crisis
ENERGY SPIKE: US-Israeli attacks on Iran and subsequent counterattacks across the Middle East have sent energy prices “soaring”, according to Reuters. The newswire reported that the region “accounts for just under a third of global oil production and almost a fifth of gas”. The Guardian noted that shipping traffic through the strait of Hormuz, which normally ferries 20% of the world’s oil, “all but ground to a halt”. The Financial Times reported that attacks by Iran on Middle East energy facilities – notably in Qatar – triggered the “biggest rise in gas prices since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine”.
‘RISK’ AND ‘BENEFITS’: Bloomberg reported on increases in diesel prices in Europe and the US, speculating that rising fuel costs could be “a risk for president Donald Trump”. US gas producers are “poised to benefit from the big disruption in global supply”, according to CNBC. Indian government sources told the Economic Times that Russia is prepared to “fulfil India’s energy demands”. China Daily quoted experts who said “China’s energy security remains fundamentally unshaken”, thanks to “emergency stockpiles and a wide array of import channels”.
‘ESSENTIAL’ RENEWABLES: Energy analysts said governments should cut their fossil-fuel reliance by investing in renewables, “rather than just seeking non-Gulf oil and gas suppliers”, reported Climate Home News. This message was echoed by UK business secretary Peter Kyle, who said “doubling down on renewables” was “essential” amid “regional instability”, according to the Daily Telegraph.
China’s climate plan
PEAK COAL?: China has set out its next “five-year plan” at the annual “two sessions” meeting of the National People’s Congress, including its climate strategy out to 2030, according to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. The plan called for China to cut its carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 17% from 2026 to 2030, which “may allow for continued increase in emissions given the rate of GDP growth”, reported Reuters. The newswire added that the plan also had targets to reach peak coal in the next five years and replace 30m tonnes per year of coal with renewables.
ACTIVE YET PRUDENT: Bloomberg described the new plan as “cautious”, stating that it “frustrat[es] hopes for tighter policy that would drive the nation to peak carbon emissions well before president Xi Jinping’s 2030 deadline”. Carbon Brief has just published an in-depth analysis of the plan. China Daily reported that the strategy “highlights measures to promote the climate targets of peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030”, which China said it would work towards “actively yet prudently”.
Around the world
- EU RULES: The European Commission has proposed new “made in Europe” rules to support domestic low-carbon industries, “against fierce competition from China”, reported Agence France-Presse. Carbon Brief examined what it means for climate efforts.
- RECORD HEAT: The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said there is a 50-60% chance that the El Niño weather pattern could return this year, amplifying the effect of global warming and potentially driving temperatures to “record highs”, according to Euronews.
- FLAGSHIP FUND: The African Development Bank’s “flagship clean energy fund” plans to more than double its financing to $2.5bn for African renewables over the next two years, reported the Associated Press.
- NO WITHDRAWAL: Vanuatu has defied US efforts to force the Pacific-island nation to drop a UN draft resolution calling on the world to implement a landmark International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on climate, according to the Guardian.
98
The number of nations that submitted their national reports on tackling nature loss to the UN on time – just half of the 196 countries that are part of the UN biodiversity treaty – according to analysis by Carbon Brief.
Latest climate research
- Sea levels are already “much higher than assumed” in most assessments of the threat posed by sea-level rise, due to “inadequate” modelling assumptions | Nature
- Accelerating human-caused global warming could see the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C limit crossed before 2030 | Geophysical Research Letters covered by Carbon Brief
- Future “super El Niño events” could “significantly lower” solar power generation due to a reduction in solar irradiance in key regions, such as California and east China | Communications Earth & Environment
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 fell to 54% below 1990 levels, the baseline year for its legally binding climate goals, according to new Carbon Brief analysis. Over the same period, data from the World Bank shows that the UK’s economy has expanded by 95%, meaning that emissions have been decoupling from growth.
Spotlight
Bristol’s ‘pioneering’ community wind turbine
Following the recent launch of the UK government’s local power plan, Carbon Brief visits one of the country’s community-energy success stories.
The Lawrence Weston housing estate is set apart from the main city of Bristol, wedged between the tree-lined grounds of a stately home and a sprawl of warehouses and waste incinerators. It is one of the most deprived areas in the city.
Yet, just across the M5 motorway stands a structure that has brought the spoils of the energy transition directly to this historically forgotten estate – a 4.2 megawatt (MW) wind turbine.
The turbine is owned by local charity Ambition Lawrence Weston and all the profits from its electricity sales – around £100,000 a year – go to the community. In the UK’s local power plan, it was singled out by energy secretary Ed Miliband as a “pioneering” project.
‘Sustainable income’
On a recent visit to the estate by Carbon Brief, Ambition Lawrence Weston’s development manager, Mark Pepper, rattled off the story behind the wind turbine.
In 2012, Pepper and his team were approached by the Bristol Energy Cooperative with a chance to get a slice of the income from a new solar farm. They jumped at the opportunity.
“Austerity measures were kicking in at the time,” Pepper told Carbon Brief. “We needed to generate an income. Our own, sustainable income.”
With the solar farm proving to be a success, the team started to explore other opportunities. This began a decade-long process that saw them navigate the Conservative government’s “ban” on onshore wind, raise £5.5m in funding and, ultimately, erect the turbine in 2023.
Today, the turbine generates electricity equivalent to Lawrence Weston’s 3,000 households and will save 87,600 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) over its lifetime.