This episode of S&P Global's All Things Sustainable explores nuclear fusion, a technology some in the energy industry believe could become a
Nuclear fusion promises monumental energy with extremely little fuel and virtually no radioactive waste. If harnessing the power of the stars in this way
This episode explores nuclear fusion, a technology some in the energy industry believe could become a cornerstone of secure,
# Potential contribution of fusion power generation to low-carbon development under the Paris Agreement and associated uncertainties. This paper assessed the potential contribution of fusion power generation to low-carbon development, which is prescribed in the Paris Agreement, under the combination of different uncertainties of future socioeconomic development, probability of the 2 °C target, and development of commercial fusion power plants. Global negative CO2 emission in 2100 by drastic decarbonization of energy systems was required to achieve the 2 °C target, and fusion power plants were expected to be installed in the latter half of the 21st century mainly in countries with limited potentials of zero-emission energy sources, such as Japan, Korea, and Turkey, for cost-efficient climate change mitigation. If inexpensive power plants could be developed by enhanced R&D and advanced design in DEMO projects or if the establishment of fission plants in the future is low, fusion power generation will also be deployed in the EU28, India, and China.
# Fusion energy. We are turning the process that powers the Sun into a low carbon, safe and sustainable part of the world's future energy supply. Fusion promises to be a safe, low carbon and sustainable part of the world’s future energy supply. Fusion has the potential to provide ‘base load’ power, complementing renewable and other low carbon energy sources as a share of many countries’ energy portfolios. Fusion can help meet the world’s rapidly growing demand for energy as a safe, low-carbon source of base load energy supply. Our answers to fusion energy questions we are often asked. We are researching the tokamak – the most successful fusion energy concept yet developed. * ## Why we need fusion energy. Fusion promises to be a safe, low carbon and sustainable part of the world’s future energy supply. ## What is fusion energy? ## Fusion Energy 101. Download the Fusion Energy 101 guide (PDF, 1.5MB). The story of fusion energy.
Fusion changes the conversation from managing scarcity to potentially creating energy abundance. If it scales, we're looking at near-zero carbon
While nuclear fusion power is often hailed as a future source of abundant, clean energy, current dominant fusion designs, magnetic and laser inertial, are unlikely to become competitive due to their expected low experience rates. * Current designs for fusion power will likely have low experience rates and high capital costs, preventing it from competing with alternative clean energy technologies, even in the long term. Using the interquartile range of these cost estimates and projecting the future cost using our empirically grounded ER of 5%, our results indicate that fusion power is likely to remain uncompetitive relative to other low-carbon electricity supply technologies (see Fig. 1). **Fig. 1: Capital expenditure (CAPEX) projections of fusion power plants (FPPs) and historical CAPEX experience curves of existing commercial energy technologies.**. **This study highlights the challenge of reaching a cost target for fusion power to become economically competitive with existing clean energy technologies, even with an assumed high experience rate, and recommends a pivot towards simple reactor designs.**.
CATF is unique among environmental nonprofits for having a fusion program, and we recently released a [report](https://www.catf.us/resource/state-policy-options-for-fusion-energy-deployment/) outlining state policy options—including legislative, regulatory, and programmatic—for fusion energy deployment. * [General Atomics](https://www.ga.com/magnetic-fusion/): GA operates the DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego, one of the world’s largest magnetic confinement tokamak research machines and the only operating tokamak in the United States, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy. In 2025, California supported fusion component manufacturing by expanding a clean energy manufacturing tax exclusion to include fusion via [SB 86](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB86), and created the nation’s first state Fusion Research and Development Innovation Fund to provide financial incentives supporting advancing fusion research and commercialization via [SB 80](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB80). * [Helion](https://www.helionenergy.com/)**:** Helion Energy, based in Everett, is developing a new fusion technology to support the “world’s first fusion power plant.” Helion Energy’s fusion generator uses magnets to collide and compress two plasmas and directly capture the energy released from the resulting fusion reactions. The same could be done for fusion, along with [other recommendations outlined in CATF’s fusion state policy report](https://www.catf.us/2025/10/its-time-for-a-state-playbook-for-fusion-energy-deployment/).