The 29th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP29, taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan from 11-22 November attracted 196 world leaders and some 72,000 participants. Nuclear energy played a minor role in a meeting which tackled a range of highly contentious issues.
Even the breakthrough announcement on the first day that COP Parties had reached a consensus on standards for the creation of carbon credits under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement was not without its controversy. This was put forward as is an essential step in helping to direct resources to the developing world. The COP29 presidency was hoping end a years-long blockage over rules to govern carbon markets. While it could speed up the energy transition by bringing cash to where it’s needed, civil society groups stress that the money from carbon markets should not replace the vast sums of climate finance that poor countries say they are owed by richer ones.
Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev, in the run up to the conference, criticised France for actions in its overseas territories, prompting France’s Ecology Minister, Agnes Pannier-Runacher to cancel her participation the COP29 talks. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev used his opening speech at COP29 to deliver a strong criticism of Western governments that purchase his country’s gas while condemning its fossil fuel-dependent economy.
Aliyev also opened COP29 by accusing Western nations of buying Azeri gas while at the same time criticising the country’s fossil fuel-dependent economy. He criticised Western media, climate activists, and opponents of Azerbaijan’s oil and gas industry, calling them hypocritical, given that the US is the world’s biggest oil producer while Azerbaijan accounts for less than 1% of global oil and gas output. “Every natural resource, whether its oil, gas, wind, sun, gold, silver, copper, all that are natural resources. Countries should not be blamed for having them and should not be blamed for bringing these resources to the market,” he said. “As president of COP29, of course we will be a strong advocate for a green transition, and we are doing it. But at the same time, we must be realistic,” he added.
Asad Rehman, from War on Want, told Euronews that Aliyev is right that the signals for change must come from the largest polluters. “Countries that have been polluting for over a century – like the United States, the European Union, and the UK – have a crucial role to play. What they do matters, as it sends a powerful signal to the rest of the world,” he said.
In another early upset, Argentina’s team was ordered to leave Baku by President Javier Milei, who had previously described the climate crisis as a “socialist lie”.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, in his opening address, left his “well-prepared speech” behind. “Since yesterday I was watching the silent TV screens in the leaders’ lounge,” he said. “People there eat, drink, meet and take photos together while images of voiceless speeches from leaders play on and on and on in the background.” He added: “To me, this seems exactly like what happens in the real world. Everyday life goes on with its old habits and our speeches, full of good words about fighting climate change, change nothing….. My point is, what on Earth are we doing, gathering over and over and over if there is no political will on the horizon to go beyond words and unite for meaningful action?”
As to nuclear, at an event co-organised by the COP29 Presidency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the USA and World Nuclear Association (WNA), six more countries joined the declaration to triple nuclear energy by 2050. An initial group of 22 countries signed the declaration in 2023 at COP28 in Dubai. These included Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ghana, Hungary, Japan, South Korea, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and the USA.
However, a number of key nuclear countries did not sign, including Russia and China as well as five in Europe (Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Switzerland and Spain), two in South Asia (India and Pakistan) three in the Americas (Argentina, Brazil and Mexico), South Africa and Iran. It is notable that the six new signatories are not currently nuclear states – El Salvador, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Nigeria and Türkiye – although NPPs are under construction in Türkiye and are firmly planned in Kazakhstan.
WNA said the announcement “is the latest moment of recognition for the essential role of nuclear energy in achieving net-zero emissions”. WNA recalled that, in March, the IAEA and Belgium co-chaired the first Nuclear Energy Summit, in which countries highlighted the role of nuclear energy in reducing the use of fossil fuels, enhancing energy security, and boosting economic development. In September, at New York Climate Week, 14 of the world’s largest banks and financial institutions from five countries signalled their support for tripling global nuclear capacity.
Nuclear was also mentioned by a number of countries in their national addresses at COP29. The US announced plans to deploy 200 GWe of nuclear capacity by 2050 (see related story). Kazakhstan promoted its uranium exports, Czechia promoted nuclear services it could provide other countries, Poland described nuclear as “the future” and Slovakia described its plans for small modular reactors (SMRs) and recycling used fuel.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni advocated the use of nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil fuels, given the absence of other practical options. “Currently there is no single alternative to fossil fuel supply. We must have a realistic global outlook,” she said.
IAEA also had a visible presence at COP29, with Director General Rafael Grossi participating in a number of events. In addition. the IAEA’s Atoms4Climate COP29 pavilion was open in the official Blue Zone offering a programme of IAEA and partner events to showcase nuclear science and technology solutions for climate change mitigation, adaptation and monitoring.
IAEA is organising a series of events on four thematic areas: energy, food, the ocean and water. These are designed to contribute to an informed debate on the tools and benefits offered by nuclear technology and applications for climate change, reducing emissions, building resilience to the impacts of climate change and provide data for decision making.
On 13 November, Grossi participated in an event hosted by the COP29 Presidency on “Financing Low Carbon Technology, including Nuclear Energy” along with representatives from the COP29 Presidency, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), multilateral development banks and the nuclear industry. Discussions covered the role of governments, multilateral development banks and the private sector in scaling up nuclear energy.
Grossi also co-hosted an event with the US Government on Accelerating Early Deployment of Small Modular Reactors. “SMRs can be game-changers for sustainable power, meeting needs from district heating to AI data centres, while decarbonising industries like steel and petrochemicals,” he said. The event focused on ways to speed up implementation of SMR projects, which the IAEA estimates will comprise a quarter of new nuclear capacity by 2050.
Speakers from the U.S. Government, Google, the South Korean steel manufacturer POSCO and the IAEA discussed infrastructure and regulatory hurdles that need to be overcome to enable faster rollout of SMRs. They also highlighted how stakeholders, including end users and vendors, are navigating these challenges.
On 18 November, the IAEA will host an event on “Leveraging Science, Technology and Innovation for Climate Solutions”. Featuring advanced nuclear technologies that contribute to resilient crop development, pollution monitoring and disease control, the event will emphasize the importance of international collaboration, increasing support for research & development, expanding data access and mobilising public-private funding for impactful climate solutions.
On the sidelines of COP29, IAEA and LinkedIn entered into a partnership that will benefit the nuclear energy workforce, including women in STEM, by supporting capacity building and workforce development. The partnership will provide training and research opportunities, and access to LinkedIn’s extensive global network. The agreement was signed by Grossi and the co-founder of LinkedIn, Allen Blue.
In the run-up to COP29, Grossi noted: “At COP28 last year in Dubai countries agreed for the first time that nuclear, together with other low-carbon energy sources, must be part of the solution. Now, at COP29 in Baku, the world must discuss concrete steps to get nuclear from consensus to construction. Financing is central to that conversation.”
He added: “Between 2017-2023 the world spent about $50bn on nuclear energy every year. Tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050 would require yearly investments of about $150bn. That sounds like a lot. But to put it into perspective, it is just a tenth of what is needed every year to triple renewable capacity by 2030.”
He noted that technology companies are turning to nuclear. “Both crypto-currencies and AI are booming, and both require a lot of energy. Each year, Bitcoin mining requires twice as much electricity as all of Finland. One AI prompt uses as much power as a lightbulb shining for 20 minutes, or about ten times as much energy as a simple internet search.”
He said AI is not only a burden, it also holds a lot of promise. “It is already helping us to mitigate and adapt to climate change. In Africa AI projects are predicting weather patterns and helping to avoid climate disasters. They are reducing methane pollution by improving waste management and AI is increasing energy efficiency in industry and construction. The digital revolution has the potential to serve humanity in many other areas too, including in our ability to detect and cure diseases. But like all other revolutions, it requires new and innovative energy solutions…. Over the past five COP meetings, nuclear has gone from the sidelines to being part of the solution. At COP29 in Baku it is time to go from agreeing what is needed, to finding ways of getting it done.”
