Canada’s National Statement: Nuclear Energy Summit (2024)

Source:| · GOVERNMENT OF CANADA· | March 21, 2024

Director General Grossi, Prime Minister De Croo, fellow Member States. On behalf of Prime Minister Trudeau and the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada thanks the IAEA and Belgium for their leadership on this first ever Nuclear Energy Summit. We fully support the IAEA’s efforts to advance nuclear energy worldwide, including through its work on nuclear safety, security, and safeguards implementation. This Summit comes at a critical moment in our collective efforts to advance the role of nuclear energy in the fight against climate change, and in supporting global energy security.

Canada is making a vital contribution in this space. We will continue to play our part to support global energy security, including through our exports of clean and reliable Canadian technologies, and resources - from low-carbon building materials to clean hydrogen, to uranium and beyond.

The climate crisis is transforming the global economy, as financial markets price climate risk into investment decisions. Capital is flowing from assets that are incompatible with a transition to a net-zero world towards opportunities that are; this very much includes nuclear.

The Government of Canada has demonstrated its commitment towards investment in nuclear through historic Clean Economy Investment Tax Credits, our innovative Green Bond Framework and through the work of Canada’s Infrastructure Bank, which is financing one of the world’s first commercial small modular reactors (SMRs) at our Darlington site in Ontario.