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That was one of the largest and most dramatic reductions of emissions anywhere in the world.

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If countries like China and India could replace their use of coal-fired electricity in the same way, the problem of human-induced climate change would largely be solved.

It was possible in Ontario because nuclear power — which provides over 60% of the province’s electricity — does not emit greenhouse gases or conventional pollution.

When it replaces coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, to produce electricity, the environmental benefits are huge.

The Wynne/McGuinty governments boasted it was their development of expensive and unreliable wind and solar power which led to the elimination of coal-fired electricity.

But it was, in fact, nuclear power and natural gas that did the job, the latter of which is the cleanest fossil fuel, burning at half the carbon intensity of coal.

Natural gas was needed in any event to back up intermittent wind and solar power, because the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine.

The problem with nuclear power, aside from nuclear waste and public fears of radiation — in reality, the mining and burning of coal has killed far more people globally than all of the world’s nuclear power plant accidents combined — is that conventional nuclear plants are expensive and take a long time to build.

In theory, SMRs which are still in the development stage, will be less expensive, quicker to assemble and portable.