Infrastructure planning in the Age of Climate Change

[LouisvilleDem]

Interesting study of what works and what doesn't when it comes to reducing CO2 emissions.

http://canadianenergyissues.com/2014/01/29/how-much-does-it-cost-to-reduce-carbon-emissions-a-primer-on-electricity-infrastructure-planning-in-the-age-of-climate-change/

The goal is to produce cheap clean electricity:



This is where various key countries land in that evaluation:



So what do the worst countries (Quadrant II) have in common? A national emphasis on "renewable" energy: mostly wind and solar. And what do the best countries (Quadrant IV) have in common? Lots of nuclear.

[Demeter]

1. Nuclear is a false economy--privatise the profits, socialize the costs

not a fair comparison if you don't count the nuclear waste costs.

[LouisvilleDem]

2. Very true

I don't know what the process is in Europe where the countries listed are located, but in the US utilities are forced to to pay a nuclear waste disposal tax which embeds the cost of dealing with nuclear waste into the price of the electricity generated by nuclear plants.

On edit:

I found that at least a couple countries in the graph do include the of disposing of nuclear waste in their price:

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Country-Profiles/Countries-O-S/Sweden/

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Country-Profiles/Countries-A-F/Finland/

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Country-Profiles/Countries-O-S/Switzerland/

[Demeter]

3. It doesn't cost much to dump it off the cost of Africa

as France is reputed to have done for decades