A turning point for nuclear energy: The world’s largest banks have decided to support the industry.

Fourteen global banks, among the largest financial organizations in the world, have pledged to increase their support for tripling global nuclear energy capacity by 2050. More than 20 countries, including Ukraine, supported the COP28 declaration on the expansion of nuclear energy capacity. Participating banks include Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Bank of America, Brookfield, Credit Agricole CIB, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Rothschild & Co..

The public show of support was a long-awaited acknowledgment that the financial sector has a critical role in the transition to low-carbon energy. The complexity and high cost of financing nuclear projects has become an obstacle to constructing new power plants and led to a significant growth rate slowdown in Western countries after many reactors were constructed in the 1970s and 1980s.

Experts call the current decision a “watershed moment” because such support will help normalize nuclear energy as “part of the solution to the problem of climate change” and change its narrative as a “necessary evil.”