Finland’s Green Party (Vihreät De Gröna) has voted by a large majority at its party conference to adopt a pro-nuclear approach. The party manifesto now states that nuclear is “sustainable energy” and demands the reform of current energy legislation to streamline the approval process for small modular reactors (SMRs). Finland’s is the first Green Party to adopt such a position.
“This is a historical moment in the history of the green movement, as we are the first green party in the world to officially let go of anti-nuclearism,” said Tea Törmänen, who attended the conference as chair of the Savonia/Karelia chapter of Viite, the pro-science internal group of the party. The Green Party shift represents a win for the Finnish Greens for Science and Technology, (Viite) which was founded in 2008 as an internal party grouping to “advance political decision making that is based on scientific knowledge.”
The platform also supports licence extensions for existing nuclear reactors, and supports replacing the planned Fennovoima Hanhikivi NPP with “an equal amount of stable, low-carbon baseload energy production”. Finland’s Green Party holds 20 seats in the national parliament and is part of the government coalition, holding the foreign ministry, the internal ministry and the ministry of environment and climate.
