Tim Armstrong, a former Deputy Minister in the Ontario public service and former chair of the Radiation Safety Institute of Canada, has written an article questioning the rationale for not making nuclear projects eligible to take advantage of the Green Bond Fund. The first issue of Green Bonds was done in March. The federal government issues the bonds and receives the funds from investors who purchase the instruments. The money raised is then directed by way of a loan to environmentally beneficial projects identified by the government. The government benefits from having its environmental initiatives directly funded and the bond purchaser benefits from owning an instrument that is backed by the federal government’s triple A credit rating. In support of his argument Armstrong points out that “Last year the UN’s Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) determined that nuclear energy has one of the lowest life-cycle carbon footprints of any generation’s technology.”
SOURCE: The Record – Tim Armstrong OpEd