At the recent G8 meeting in Japan the International Energy Agency presented their latest Energy Technology Perspectives, that made a clear and convincing case for a significant contribution from nuclear energy to meeting the global need for more electricity and less greenhouse gas emissions. The various communications issued by the G8 and other countries represented at the meeting largely endorsed this support for nuclear energy, the UK Minister declaring that "we are on the verge of a new nuclear age."
However, the official communication statements were couched in the usual politic-speak on nuclear, where the support for nuclear was qualified as being only from those countries that supported the use of nuclear energy. Indeed, the statement from the G8 made no reference to nuclear energy at all.
Such qualified support is typical of G8 statements, where a minority opposition to nuclear energy has to be dealt with. Press speculation unsurprisingly pointed to Germany as the source of the opposition to outright support for nuclear energy. To be fair, the G8 statements have improved somewhat, at least now they recognise the value of nuclear energy, where in the past they have often chosen to ignore it altogether.
However, only a few days after the meeting the German chancellor Angela Merkel signalled her Christian Democratic Union party would oppose the nuclear phase-out policy of the previous government, pointing to how nuclear energy helps contribute to affordable energy prices.
So it appears that the G8 meeting texts pandered to a nuclear phase-out policy that isn't even supported by the leader of that country.