As Nigeria and other African countries increasingly announce plans to embrace nuclear power in their energy mix, a coalition of civil society organisations from Africa, Europe, and Russia has released a scathing new report labelling the continent’s nuclear ambitions a ‘false climate solution.’
The report titled “The Alarming Rise of False Climate Solutions in Africa: The Nuclear Energy Misadventure”, is released in the build-up to the Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB62), which will begin on June 16. It critiques the growing interest in nuclear energy by countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and others, warning that the nuclear route is expensive, dangerous, and incompatible with the urgency of the global climate crisis.
Prepared by twelve organisations, including Ghana’s 360 Human Rights, Kenya’s Centre for Justice, Governance and Environmental Action, and Russia’s Ecodefense, the report argues that nuclear power is being promoted at the expense of viable and truly sustainable alternatives like solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal energy.
“From environmental disasters to health risks and economic concerns, it’s time for Ghana to reject nuclear power plans. Nuclear accidents and radioactive waste don’t just threaten us today—they endanger future generations,” the executive director of 360 Human Rights, Alberta Kpeleku stated.
The 2018 Goldman Prize recipient for Africa, Makoma Lekalakala, noted in her foreword that nuclear energy undermines Africa’s climate goals.
“It obstructs the urgent need to reach net zero through truly clean and sustainable means,” she wrote.
Activists also raise security concerns. “Nigeria is not ready to manage nuclear plants. With our history of oil infrastructure sabotage, a nuclear facility could become a target for terrorism.”
The executive director, the Renevyln Development Initiative, Philip Jakpor, told me that Nuclear plans are a “misadventure”, adding that Nigeria is not ready to host nuclear plants because we don’t have the capacity to manage it.
“We have had longstanding difficulties with oil and gas infrastructure where pipelines are frequently the target of sabotage, theft or terrorism, causing enormous environmental damage in the Niger Delta. A nuclear power station would inevitably become a “target of terrorists”. Security at a nuclear power station would need to be akin to a “military base” probably protected by another country such as Russia,” Jakpor further explained.
The coalition therefore advised that Africa’s future must be powered by clean, safe, and community-driven energy solutions, not by the dangers and debts of nuclear power.
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