Nuclear industry leaders worldwide have welcomed a commitment at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (the Earth Summit) in Johannesburg that "all energy technologies will be necessary" to improve the lives of millions and cut the number of those living in poverty.
World leaders promised to improve access to reliable and affordable energy services to the poor and to halve the proportion of people living in poverty by 2010 - and recognised that all energy technologies will be necessary to achieve that goal. The secretary general of the World Energy Council, Gerald Doucet, said: "The summit has shown that developing countries need to be in a position to choose what cleaner technologies would best meet their energy access needs effectively. Clearly, all energy options need to be open and accepted as the fundamental policies of sustainable energy development." A statement issued by Foratom said: "For many countries, nuclear energy will play an important part in achieving this objective, while meeting the highest environmental targets. The Plan of Action, agreed in Johannesburg, acknowledged that some countries chose to use advanced energy technologies, such as nuclear power, to meet sustainable development goals. India and China - two developing nations representing almost half the world's population - have substantial programmes to increase electricity generation from nuclear."
