Mark Carney says net-zero impossible without nuclear power

Source: | · JOURNAL OF COMMERCE · | September 22, 2022

Source: Mark Carney told a Brookfield conference on Thursday that nuclear power is a critical piece of the energy transition puzzle. PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI /Postmedia News

Mark Carney, the former central banker who now heads Brookfield Asset Management Inc.’s transition fund, said that moving to a net-zero economy will be impossible without wider adoption of nuclear power.

“There’s no transition that works without nuclear, full stop,” Carney said at the company’s investor day Thursday.

Toronto-based Brookfield bought nuclear power business Westinghouse Electric Co. in 2018 as part of the latter’s bankruptcy reorganization. Brookfield has been running a sales process for Westinghouse that’s generated “robust interest” from potential buyers, a company executive told investors in the summer. 

Brookfield, which started a US$15-billion transition fund under Carney’s watch, plans to build utilities for countries and smaller battery technologies based off nuclear, chief executive Bruce Flatt said.

“I think there’s a paradigm shift, and the paradigm shift is energy security,” Flatt said, adding that nuclear is the only alternative for nations that don’t have natural gas or enough land for solar projects.