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A worker of SABESP, a Brazilian enterprise of Sao Paulo state, that provides water and sewage services to residential, commercial and industrial areas walks through a dry Jaguary dam as a result of a long drought period that hit the state of Sao Paulo in Braganca Paulista, 100 km from Sao Paulo January 31, 2014. This has been the hottest January on record in parts of Brazil, and the heat plus a severe drought has fanned fears of water shortages, crop damage, and higher electricity bills that could drag down the economy during an election year for President Dilma Rousseff. REUTERS/Nacho Doce REUTERS/Nacho Doce

It seemed installing more facilities that generate nuclear power will have a correlation factor that will help restrain the worsening global warming of the Earth’s temperatures, a report co-authored by the International Energy Agency and the Nuclear Energy Agency suggested.

The report said that despite the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in Japan, nuclear power remains the second-largest source worldwide of low-carbon electricity. The catastrophic accident prompted global attitudes to change towards nuclear power. Because of its low-carbon emissions, environmentalists are slowly trying to open minds and reconcile the idea that overall global greenhouse gas emissions could only be radically reduced if more nuclear power plants are constructed.

To ensure that global warming stays limited to two degrees and no longer beyond that, nuclear power capacity needs to more than double by 2050, the report said. The new publication titled ‘Technology Roadmap: Nuclear Energy 2015 Update’ said global nuclear power generation capacity needs to increase from 396 gigawatt (GW) to 930 GW by 2050. The report said 17 percent of global electricity generation in 2050 must come from nuclear power generation in order to meet the IEA 2 Degree Scenario (2DS) for the most effective and efficient means of limiting global temperature rise to the internationally agreed maximum.

Maria van der Hoeven, IEA Executive Director, said in a statement that it is imperative that the global governments work together to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. “And, indeed, if we are to meet our collective climate goals, nuclear energy is critical.”

Most of the nuclear growth spurts could likely happen in China, as well as in Russia, India and the UK. In its World Energy Outlook 2013, the IEA said developing countries led by China and India will lead the clamour of strong growth in energy demand. A testament to this was when China overtook the U.S. to become top CO2 emitter in 2007. And because it knows its population will continue to increase in the coming years, China has set ambitious plans to increase its nuclear capacity by 2020 to a net 58 GW, from 17 GW in 2014. It has 29 nuclear reactors under construction.