Six page article from 2003 provides an in depth discussion on existing and Future Nuclear Systems: "In Response to the difficulties in achieving sustainability, a sufficiently high degree of safety and a competitive economic basis for nuclear power, the U.S. Department of Energy initiated the Generation IV program in 1999. Generation IV refers to the broad division of nuclear designs into four categories: early prototype reactors (Generation I), the large central station nuclear power plants of today (Generation II), the advanced lightwater reactors and other systems with inherent safety features that have been designed in recent years (Generation III), and the next-generation systems to be designed and built two decades from now (Generation IV) [see box on opposite page]. By 2000 international interest in the Generation IV project had resulted in a nine-country coalition that includes Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S. Participating states are mapping out and collaborating on the research and development of future nuclear energy systems."
Western countries and industrialized Asian nations like Japan and the Republic of Korea have moved many of their factories to developing countries such as China and India, where cheap labor allows them to manufacture at lower costs than at home. This globalization of production has resulted in the discharge of much more waste in poor nations that otherwise would have been released in developed countries. As a matter of fact, not all of the greenhouse gases released "in China" or "from China" are really "China's".
The current rankings put the US 18th according to GDP (2nd in absolute terms) and the UK is 19th. Australia “squandered an early technical lead in solar energy” and is 28th.
Spain is 4th relative to GDP, Finland is 5th and China 6th.
In absolute terms, the top ten countries are: 1. Germany, 2. the US, 3. Japan, 4. China, 5. Denmark, 6. Brazil, 7. Spain, 8. France, 9. the UK, 10. Korea.
South Korea electronics giant LG has announced plans to invest 20 trillion won (£10 billion) ‘green’ research and development and reduce its own emissions 40% on current levels by 2020.Investment will be divided between expanding its energy efficient products and renewable energy businesses in fuel cells and rechargeable batteries and improving the performance of the company’s facilities.
The energy ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized countries and from China, India, and South Korea agreed on June 8 to establish the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC).