Diarmaid Williams reports that the notion that the world can reliably be powered completely by renewable energy does not stand up to scrutiny, according to a leading expert on climate change. Ben Heard, Director of Australia-based ThinkClimate Consulting, told the World Nuclear Association annual symposium in London that his organization did a thorough analysis of the body of literature supporting that 100 per cent renewables viewpoint, and found it lacking in supportive evidence. A world powered 100 per cent by renewables as popularly conceived does not exist. I can tell you it is not true... the evidence is conflicted and is, in fact, scarce, he said. Heard referenced a recent speech by social activist Naomi Klein who said that not only do we not need it (nuclear), we must not use it.
During his presentation entitled, Worlds without nuclear - a systematic review of 100 per cent renewables literature, Heard said that the burden of evidence for 100 per cent renewables rests on the proponents of that position but his team had found that the growing body of literature involved is far from convincing. He also criticized governments bent on phasing out nuclear power saying that logic and politics do not necessarily go hand in hand and that science should be pulled back into the debate.
He further said that we entirely miss that most of the problems stem from a dysfunction between political, public and scientific establishment, which had a more harmonious relationship 30 years ago in the developed world but might not last in the countries where it still exits. To illustrate the point he referred to a recent chemical explosion, which left 200 people dead in China. The Germans did not then go out and close down their chemical industry.
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