Nuclear power could be generating almost one quarter of global electricity by 2050, making a significant contribution to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.

This would require nuclear generating capacity to more than triple over the next 40 years--a target that is "ambitious, but achievable," the IEA and the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development's Nuclear Energy Agency, or NEA, said in their jointly published Nuclear Energy Technology Roadmap.

"Nuclear energy is one of the key low-carbon energy technologies that can contribute, alongside energy efficiency, renewable energies and carbon capture and storage, to the decarbonization of electricity supply by 2050," said IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka.

Nuclear power is a mature, low-carbon technology unlike many other technologies such as offshore wind and carbon capture and storage, the report said pointing to the latest reactor designs now under construction around the world, which build on over 50 years of technology development.

However, policy-related, industrial, financial and public acceptance barriers to the rapid growth of nuclear power still remain, the report added.

"Nuclear is already one of the main sources of low-carbon energy today. If we can address the challenges to its further expansion, nuclear has the potential to play a larger role in cutting CO2 emissions," said NEA Director General Luis Echavarri.

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