Terry Wynn

Terry Wynn was a British Labour Party member of the European Parliament for 17 years between 1989 and 2006. First he was elected to serve the Merseyside East constituency as the Labour Party candidate. In 1994, he was re-elected to the same constituency, now called Merseyside East & Wigan. In 2004 (as in 1999), MEPs were elected on a regional basis and Wynn became one of the 9 MEPs for the North West Region of England, the Labour Party having 3 of the 9.

In March 2007 he was European-in-Residence at the University of Auckland Europe Institute.

Pro-Nuclear Activities

Chair of Pro-Nuclear Forum at the EU

Wynn was the Chair of the Forum for the Future of Nuclear Energy within the European Parliament. He was also a Board Member of the European Energy Forum.

Recent subjects covered by the Forum include the "Public acceptance of Nuclear" and the "Environmentalist's Case for Nuclear Power". [1]

Co-Organiser of Pro-Nuke Petition

In October 2005, Wynn, spoke at a Conference organised by FORATOM on climate change and energy. He said: "We can't have a debate on climate change without discussing nuclear energy, and while I encourage renewable energy sources, let's get real, none of them will ever run the Brussels metro system". The central theme of Wynn's speech was that "the problems and the solutions for nuclear power are neither technical nor environmental, but political ones". [2]

Wynn also presented the conference with a Declaration that advocated raising the profile of using Nuclear Energy in the debate on Climate Change. It stated:

"We the undersigned declare that it is our shared conviction that nuclear energy should play an increasingly central role in the global fight against climate change and remain a pillar of the EU's energy and environmental policy planning. In a carbon-constrained 21st century threatened by an increasingly acute energy supply deficit, nuclear energy offers a secure, reliable, affordable and environmentally-friendly power supply. By helping the EU to meet its energy sustainability targets and by mitigating the effects of climate change, nuclear energy contributes to the achieving of EU economic and environmental objectives...."

The petition called upon EU's leaders to:

• "recognise the vital contribution made by the nuclear industry to reducing CO2 emissions;"

• "encourage more investment in zero or low carbon-intensive power generation technologies, including nuclear energy;"

• "recognise that meeting the climate change challenge will need a long-term global strategy, which should include an effective international emissions trading scheme;"

• "ensure that the use of JI (Joint Implementation) and CDM (Clean Development Mechanisms) does not exclude nuclear projects after 2012;"

• "encourage all economic actors, including China, India and the United States,to participate in and provide solutions for meeting the global climate change challenge." [3]

In New Zealand

Wynn argues that addressing global warming requires an expansion of nuclear power and in an address to a public meeting in Auckland Wynn defended the nuclear industry's safety standards: "Do you think any worker who works there would do so if he thought it was dangerous, unsafe and prone to terrorist attacks? Would they put their wives and families at risk by living next door to a nuclear power plant? The people who work in that industry know the safety aspects of it, the security aspects. They know what happens if things go wrong." [4]

External links

• Chris Barton, "Pro-nuclear voice in the wilderness", New Zealand Herald, March 31, 2007.