Background
This event was for WINS Ambassadors only.
The WINS Ambassadors are an important capability for WINS providing their time voluntary with the support of their organisations to participate in various WINS activities and outreach to encourage new WINS Members and new Academy learners to ultimately achieve certified professional status and become part of the global Alumni Network community. Ambassadors play a key role for WINS; being an advocate for change, promoting the need for continued professional development in nuclear security, growing a network and community within the industry and influencing stakeholders and public perception.
The Ambassador has now grown to an established global network of 35 Ambassadors (17 female and 18 male) representing a total of 26 countries currently.
Objectives
The purpose of the online meeting was to enable the Ambassador to meet in a collective forum and share their thoughts and ideas for the progression of a strong and uniform nuclear security culture.
One of the outcomes from the recent UK COP26 Presidency meeting, held in Glasgow, Scotland was the continuing commitment by global leaders to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs); the 2015 Paris Agreement having set a goal of holding “the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.” The debate continues about how this will be achieved and what future low carbon energy technologies will contribute to achieving the reduction in average global temperatures required. What is known, is that current civil nuclear technologies have contributed to stemming temperature increases over the last 20 to 30 years and that nuclear can have a continued role for climate change as demand for electricity and subsequent emissions grow.
The event aimed to highlight the importance of climate change and the role civil nuclear has to play to achieve a carbon net zero. With this brings changes in terms of technology, digitalisation, infrastructure, logistics, capacity, capability and the importance of maintaining safety of operations and considerations for the continued security of nuclear and other radioactive materials.
The webinar was facilitated by Roland Fletcher, WINS Academy Manager and Whitney Isaacs, WINS Academy Project Officer.
The webinar included the following sessions:
- The opportunity for all Ambassadors to participate in a Talking Heads Video, “showcasing their collective thoughts on nuclear security considerations for achieving a net zero carbon future”
- Special guest speaker for the webinar, Mr John Barrett D., ICD.D, Portolan Global Inc. and WINS Board Member, who will reflect on “The net zero carbon landscape: experiences and foresight on the foreseeable changes for nuclear energy and nuclear security”.
- Ambassador speaker sessions from Ambassadors from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. “Sharing of their views on Climate Change in relation to their country / region and the impact this will have, including benefits and opportunities for change, and what will be required in their opinion with regard to nuclear security”
- An open discussion session “In achieving Climate Change objectives with nuclear, what steps do we need to take to maintain nuclear security”
- WINS Future Projects and Activities for Ambassador participation and engagement
- Closing summary by Roland Fletcher and Whitney Issacs.
Reference materials
In preparation for the workshop all Ambassadors were asked to record a one-minute video “Nuclear security considerations for achieving a net zero carbon future” and provide this to WINS for a “Talking heads” video to be prepared for the meeting.
Process
Date: Wednesday, 8 June 2022, from 09:00 to 12:00 (CEST)
Duration: 3 hours
Language: English
Registration: each participant received the registration link for Zoom.
Relevant information about the event, such as speaker presentation were made available to WINS Members on the WINS website.
If you have any questions, please contact: Mehri.Avlyakulova@wins.org
