A long overdue moment? The UK greens pushing for the nuclear option
O n 21 May 2022, after hours of impassioned debate, members of Finland’s Green party voted to make theirs the first in the world to back nuclear power. Greens in Finland would now campaign not only for the lifespan of current reactors to be extended but also for new plants, with the technology recognised by their manifesto as “sustainable energy”.
It was a decision that upended decades of environmentalist orthodoxy – by campaigners who, in many cases, cut their teeth in opposition to nuclear. And, for Tea Törmänen, it was the culmination of years of campaigning.
She and others in the Finnish Greens for Science and Technology group had argued that only through the adoption of nuclear power and other technologies could human societies decarbonise fast enough to avert climate breakdown. Writing later, the biologist, who is also chair of Finland’s Ecomodernist Society, said: “For me it was a moment that was long overdue.”
As anxiety grows over the extent of climate and ecological crises, fear for the future is loading an ever more desperate calculus in favour of radical action. For some, this could include environmentalists embracing technologies previously regarded as unacceptable. But could Britain’s green movement go nuclear? Last month, Törmänen was in a London meeting with UK activists to see if it can.
RePlanet are the pro-nuclear, pro-GMO vegans who have come to shake up the environmental movement. Newly formed of an international network of pro-technology environmental campaign groups, they believe doubling down on technology and progress is the key to solving the climate and ecological crises. Now, with funding from climate philanthropists, they are spreading out from a core in northern Europe with a plan to “pivot the
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