HONG KONG, PACIFIC PERSPECTIVES — Ask the average environmentally concerned person how our power generators will achieve the tough emissions reductions needed to play their part in cutting global warming, and you will probably get a simple, clear answer: wind and solar.
Recent research by the International Energy Agency shows that nearly half of interviewees worldwide think that wind and solar power will be the two main sources of electricity generation by 2040. There is just one problem: That idea is naive, overoptimistic and almost certainly mistaken. Quite literally, it is "hot air."
That's why governments and power companies around the world are bracing themselves for an epic PR battle: How do they persuade consumers that if emission targets are to be met, and global warming brought under some kind of control, then there is only one choice — nuclear power?