Effects of nuclear on GDP and Co2 emissions
There was recently a re-post stating nuclear caused GDP and carbon emissions to decouple in France. Most people didn't seem to look at the counterfactual: what happened in countries with less or no nuclear? If nuclear power was the reason for this decoupling we would expect other countries to show opposite or smaller effects.
So on to the actual data:
Most countries had a very similar change in GDP. The only outlier was Spain doubling growth.
This time there were 2 outliers Spain and Italy. Both increasing emissions.
French carbon intensity decreased less than German or UK. Biggest loser in this comparison was Italy as they increased their emissions while not increasing GDP more than others, but they've gotten on the same track as other countries around 1970.
Looking at these graphs it is hard to even notice when countries built their nuclear or when they phased them out. Countries that built a lot of nuclear reduced their emissions less than countries that built much less nuclear or even phased them out. Looking at total emissions per capita masks electricity emissions extremely well. Which is why I find the original analysis hilarious.
So what is the conclusion? Building nuclear doesn't seem to have much effect on emissions per GDP. I guess the next post can be titled "German Nuclear Revolution: Growth Without Carbon". To showcase how effectively Germany reduced their emissions while increasing their GDP.
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