Nuclear 2.0 ─ Why a Green Future Needs Nuclear Power

By making use of the latest in world energy statistics, author Mark Lynas shows that with wind and solar still at only about one percent of global primary energy, looking to renewable energy as a solution to deliver all the world’s power is a dangerously delusional concept. Moreover, with no possibility reducing the world’s energy usage—when the developing world is fast extricating itself from poverty and adding the equivalent of a new Brazil to the global electricity consumption each year—additional solutions are needed. This book then details how the antinuclear movement of the 1970s and 1980s succeeded only in making the world more dependent on fossil fuels. Instead of making the same mistake again, this book shows how all those who want to see a low-carbon future need to join forces by backing an ambitious proposal for a combined investment in wind, solar, and nuclear power.

Mark Lynas is an environmental writer and campaigner. He is a visiting research associate at Oxford University’s school of geography and the environment, and vice-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies. He was the climate advisor to the president of the Maldives from 2009 to 2011 and is the author of The God Species, High Tide, and Six Degrees.