“Sand they are already active, I think it would be a mistake to shut down nuclear power plants to rely on coal ”. Greta Thunberg, the Swedish activist’s face environmental movement Fridays for Future, he is aware that his statements will cause debate but he repeats the concept several times. Interviewed by the German broadcaster Ardintervened in the energy debate that has dominated public discussion in Germany for months.
Greta Thunberg and the gas emergency
The interview will air on Wednesday, but TV journalist Sandra Maischberger anticipated an excerpt in a Twitter post. No wonder Thunberg finds the idea of still focusing on coal is very bad. Surprising that you consider instead better to use nuclear power plants. Central which, however, are still in operation in Germany.
Basically, says Thunberg it is a big mistake to shut down German power plants to return to fossil fuels. This is something that many analysts have agreed on, but they have highlighted how the position of the young activist has changed compared to some time ago.
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish activist, despite being the face and symbol of the environmental movement Fridays for Future, is aware that the shortage of gas raises difficult questions to answer.
But has the activist changed his mind about nuclear power?
In 2019, in fact, in a post published on Facebook, the young environmentalist, while recognizing that nuclear energy could represent a small part “of a new energy solution with zero carbon emissions”, was far from it. Even more recently, a few months ago, on the occasion of the vote on the introduction of gas and nuclear power among the “green” sources in the European Parliament, in a tweet, she referred to the use of methane and the atom as “false solutions.”
Nuclear, this unknown
The German government’s energy strategy calls for the relaunch of coal-fired power plants to reduce electricity generation through gas. Added to this is the decision of Robert HabeckDeputy Chancellor and Minister of Economy and Climate Protection, to leave connected to the network, such as reserve emergencytwo of the three nuclear power plants still in operation until April 2023. An emergency reserve for the winter.
But Germany has put in place a plan to become independent from nuclear energy: the last three nuclear power plants remained active should have closed by the end of 2022. It should be noted that, however, before the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, in Japan, Germany relied on nuclear power: with 17 reactors, from which the country derived about a quarter of its electricity.
Renewables, first of all
Greta Thunberg, of course, is not backing down on renewables: we need to go in this direction, rather than thinking about any new investment in fossil energy. But in the current scenario, even nuclear energy, if already installed, can be a resource.
The major concern right now is that the difficult international situation with the gas crisis becomes an excuse to slow down the energy transition. And consider a return to the fossil.
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