Does nuclear power really help us fight climate change?

The global community is facing a double challenge: the world's population, level of development and, consequently, energy demands are steadily rising; at the same time, we must understand, mitigate, and adapt to climate change, which is an unfortunate by-product of increased energy use. Nuclear power is the only low-carbon technology that is available today that has the potential to be deployed on a wide scale and in large capacities to help meet the global climate–energy challenge. First, direct greenhouse gas emissions from nuclear power plants are negligible. Secondly, when emissions over the entire life cycle are considered, hydro, nuclear, and wind-based electricity generation are the lowest CO₂ emitters. Therefore, nuclear energy is ideally placed to mitigate the effects of climate change in a most cost effective way.