Putin's Invasion Challenges Green Aversion to Nuclear Power
Greater political responsibility may force them to reconcile their climate goals with the imperative of security.
What comes after won’t be as reliable.
Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images EuropeEver since the 1970s, European Green parties have argued passionately for cutting carbon emissions from the continent’s energy, while at the same time reflexively shunning the world’s only reliable source of zero-carbon electricity: nuclear power.
Russia’s Ukrainian invasion is punching big holes in the logic of this position. That is especially true in Germany and Belgium, countries where the Greens sit in coalition governments committed to the phaseout of all nuclear power. Germany closed three of its last six reactors last year and the rest will follow by the end of 2022. Belgium has promised to close all of its seven units, which generate half its electricity, by 2025.