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cailianshe news, september 23 (edited by zhao hao)according to media reports, 14 of the world's largest banks and financial institutions will pledge to increase their support for nuclear energy. many governments and industries hope that this move will provide support for the financing of the latest wave of nuclear power plant construction.

the report said the 14 financial institutions are bank of america, barclays, bnp paribas, citigroup, morgan stanley and goldman sachs, as well as abu dhabi commercial bank, ares management, brookfield, credit agricole cib, guggenheim securities, rothschild bank, segra capital management and societe generale.

these financial institutions will attend an event in new york on monday (september 23rd) local time with john podesta, senior adviser to the us president on international climate policy, and they will express support for the goal of "increasing global nuclear energy capacity to three times the current level by 2050" mentioned at the cop28 conference last year.

the event is part of climate week nyc, which kicks off on sunday. the big banks have not yet spelled out specific actions, but nuclear experts say their public support for nuclear energy is a long-awaited endorsement.

the international atomic energy agency (iaea) raised its outlook for nuclear power in its energy, electricity and nuclear energy forecast to 2050 released last week. under the high-forecast model, nuclear power capacity will increase to 2.5 times the current level in 2050. experts generally believe that nuclear energy will play a key role in the low-carbon energy transition.

world nuclear power capacity forecast model source: iaea

however, the difficulty and high cost of financing nuclear power projects have always been a major obstacle to building new nuclear power plants. under the latest commitments, banks are expected to support new power plants by increasing direct loans and project financing to nuclear power companies, arranging bond sales or introducing companies to private equity or credit funds.

george borovas, a member of the world nuclear association's management committee, said it was often difficult for banks to support new nuclear projects because they needed senior approval. "the top managers at the banks would say, 'we know nothing about nuclear energy. we only know it's very difficult and very controversial.'"

“this event will be a game changer.” borovas added that the bank’s support would help normalize nuclear energy as “part of the solution to climate change.”

bnp paribas said there was “no scenario” in which the world could achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 without nuclear power. barclays argued it was involved in the project because nuclear power could address the intermittent nature of wind and solar power.

last friday, microsoft announced that it had signed a 20-year power supply agreement with constellation energy, which will also restart a nuclear reactor at three mile island, pennsylvania, u.s. earlier this month, oracle announced that it would build three small nuclear power plants to power the giant data centers it is designing.

“when you see these tech companies investing in nuclear energy through contracts, things start to happen and we’re talking to them,” said james schaefer, an executive at guggenheim securities. “it’s the bank’s job to connect clients and investors with the producers and owners of this technology.”