Bill Gates' nuclear deals made inroads at COP28 climate change

The billionaire nuclear deals of the "philanthrocapitalist" Bill Gates have landed at the Conference of the Parties on climate change, COP 28, where an agreement was signed declaration to triple nuclear energy by 2050 (compared to 2020), so as to achieve the objectives of zero net emissions.The tycoon has long been involved in design of new nuclear reactors for the production of clean energy, through a company he founded in 2008, Terra Power, whose first power plant was located in Kemmerer, a town in Wyoming with less than 3 thousand inhabitants.The billionaire entrepreneur's goal is to "save the planet" from global warming by promoting the energy transition through new sources of clean energy.With this goal, the founder of Microsoft did not hesitate to influence government policies promoting its vision of the energy future at COP 28.The declaration to increase nuclear energy was signed, in fact, by 22 countries, including the USA, Great Britain and France, under explicit pressure from the tycoon who, speaking to the representatives of the nations gathered in Dubai - where the Conference took place - He said that there are many promising “climate solutions”, but they require the necessary support from politicians and entrepreneurs.“Now, we need to take what looks very promising and scale it up, build the pilot plants, demonstrate them,” he said Gates in an interview with CNBC, adding that «this requires government policies, it requires the intervention of big companies.All these different communities, which need to come together, are represented here."

The "philanthropist" not only once again - as in the case of healthcare which he influences through subsidies to the WHO - managed to influence political decisions while promoting his business and investments, but his company, Terra Power , he also signed a memorandum of understanding with ENEC, the state nuclear company of the United Arab Emirates, to study the potential development of advanced reactors in the Arab country and abroad.«For the UAE, we are looking for a future for clean electrons and molecules that will be brought to reality by advanced reactors», he stated Mohamed Al Hammadi, CEO of ENEC, during the signing ceremony.For his part, Chris Levesque, president and CEO of TerraPower, stated that «Bringing advanced nuclear technologies to market is critical to achieving global decarbonization goals».The memorandum of understanding between TerraPower and the United Arab Emirates provides exploring the uses of advanced nuclear reactors, including on-grid energy storage and the supply of energy needed to produce hydrogen and decarbonize coal, steel and aluminum plants.

The United Arab Emirates currently has one conventional nuclear power plant, near Abu Dhabi, which began producing electricity in 2020. Earth Power, however, has an ongoing demonstration project for its advanced reactor Natrium which it hopes will be operational in 2030.However, the reactors al Natrium of TerraPower require a fuel called high-dose uranium or HALEU, whose main producer is currently the Russia.The project was delayed due to concerns about HALEU supplies after the Russian military operation in Ukraine.The tycoon's company told the British agency Reuters that it expects the United States to become capable of producing the fuel in the next decade.

The times are therefore still long and it is still necessary to find large amounts of money to carry out the project:so the one launched in Dubai is the first Global fundraising calling platform involving states and businesses.The scheme is that of the public-private partnership that the capitalist magnates of Davos and Silicon Valley like so much, led by the founder of Microsoft, who stated that companies «will get help from governments and these entrepreneurs will they will unite."Terra Power obviously also appears among the companies:“Facilitating the speed of innovation and the speed of expansion, that's my big hope for COP28,” Gates said.

The signatory states of the nuclear declaration also include Canada, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Finland, Ghana, Hungary, Japan, South Korea, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine and the Emirates Arabs.Russia and China, however, have not signed the agreement.Even Italy did not sign the declaration, as, according to the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, the great Italian challenge is «the issue of nuclear fusion, which could be the solution to all energy problems tomorrow.Italy is ahead of others in this technology, we have to think big."

However, COP 28 elected nuclear energy as energy of the future:according to the American special envoy for the climate John Kerry, "it is not possible to reach zero emissions in 2050 without nuclear power", while for the French president Macron it is an "indispensable solution".Behind the project, however, there is the hand of the usual philanthropists who manage to promote their businesses while influencing international decisions and obtaining government funding.Half of the money needed to build the Terra Power nuclear power plant, for example, was invested by the US Department of Energy.Now we are looking for new financial institutions, shareholders and governments ready to finance the projects of the philanthrocapitalists who have chosen COP 28 as the main platform to promote their investments.All this while also ignoring several warnings from environmental groups about the dangers of atomic energy.

[by Giorgia Audiello]