the revive our oceans category for training women to preserve australia's great barrier reef. now it's time for a look at the weather with stav. hello there, it is feeling quite bitterly cold this weekend, particularly when we compare to what we have been used to for so long. stays cold into part two of the weekend with strong easterly winds, a few showers feeding in off the north sea, all tied in with an area of high—pressure centre to cross at the north—west of russia. cold air circulating it. the easterly wind will continue to feed in showers to eastern scotland, eastern england and eastern parts of northern ireland during the overnight period. some clear spells with temperatures likely to drop below freezing. where we see showers and where skies cleared afterwards there is just

the risk of some ice in places. a similar story for sunday, a bit more cloud around generally, but the better picture for western scotland, northern ireland, no weather fronts here. some sunshine here, a little bit of sunshine across western fringes of england and wales, but eastern areas particularly seeing the thicker cloud and most of the showers. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines... some health experts say it's likely the rise in strep a cases is linked to young children not mixing as much due to the pandemic. six children in england and wales have died recently after contracting the infection. almost 20% of unaccompanied child migrants from albania who've come into the care of kent county council this year have gone missing. charities fear they could become the victims of trafficking. the former government minister conor burns has been cleared of misconduct and he'll have his conservative party whip restored. a newspaper in greece says the british museum and the greek government have been in secret talks over a possible return of the elgin marbles.

and at the world cup, striker memphis depay gives the netherlands the lead in their round of 16 game against the us. the winner will face argentina or australia, who meet later this evening. i think we meant the final 16. that will be it. now on bbc news, talking business. hello, everybody. a very warm welcome to talking business weekly with me, aaron heslehurst. let's go and take a look at what's on the show. as winter takes hold in europe and millions struggle to pay their energy bills, just how much progress is being made in bringing in affordable alternatives for the long term? in the rush to rescue itself from russia, europe has signed more than 50 new energy deals this year. but will they keep the lights on for the long term and at what cost in other parts of the world are also racing to secure the supplies they need.

so this former top european union energy official will tell me how the continent can find the fuel to keep its economy going. europe's biggest energy provider is planning to pour millions more into renewables. so the boss is going to tell me how this will help him overcome the volatility his industry has suffered over the last year. and does nuclear power still have a future? this man runs a company trialling new technology with the us government and tells me why the advances they're making mean it's safer than ever. wherever you'rejoining me from around the world, once again, a big hello and a warm welcome to the show.

you know, one of the biggest questions for many countries around the world is just how are they going to make sure they have enough energy to keep the lights on for many years to come? russia's invasion of ukraine back in february triggered an energy crisis that pushed prices to record levels all around the world. and as winter grips the northern hemisphere governments, they're struggling to make sure households can afford to keep the heating on and that businesses don't go bust because of soaring energy costs. last year, russia was one of the world's biggest energy suppliers, producing nearly 17.5% of natural gas, more than 12% of oil, and 5.5% of coal. but now it's being frozen out of global markets to make it harder for president putin to fund his invasion of ukraine. europe, it was most dependent, but it has scrambled to sign at least 56 new deals as it tries to find more secure long term supplies. the net. it has been spread far and wide in the bid to find these replacements, the countries in red on this map.

they've signed a deal to supply either the eu or one of its 27 member states. but the shift away from russia means competition, it is fiercer than ever. qatar. it might be busy hosting the world cup, but it's paid for it by selling its huge gas reserves. china, the world's biggest energy consumer, has just signed a27 consumer, has just signed a 27—year deal with qatar, which it says is the largest in the history of liquefied natural gas. i think it solidifies that the long term deals are here and long term deals are important for both seller and buyer to make sure that the sustainability of of supply is there for countries that need lng for the long term. and qatar has also signed a smaller 15 year deal to sell its gas to germany, which is the first long term lng supply deal for europe's biggest economy. 15 years is great. these obviously seem to be good conditions. i wouldn't mind contracts

of 20 years or longer, but the companiesjust have to know that the demand in germany would then decrease at some point. if we want to meet the climate protection targets, that's well known. i'm talking in the continuity of the grand coalition that germany wants to be climate neutral by 2045. that's not much time for an insanely ambitious project. however, there are questions about whether long term contracts mean the problems caused by depending so heavily on russia risk being repeated. nonetheless, making sure new sources of energy come on stream quickly and reliably is certainly one of the most pressing concerns for politicians everywhere. that's because higher energy prices have been driving the cost of living crisis everywhere, from the united states to japan and australia and europe. we must define together a global economic response strategy in the face of an energy crisis that will last because the increase in energy prices is structural, because what is happening to gas, what is happening to oil will not disappear overnight.

because what is at stake is the competitiveness of our companies, the competitiveness of our industries. so europe's leaders realise that they need an energy strategy that works for the future of their economies. but is that even possible with all the infighting amongst the eu's 27 member states? well, i've been speaking to a woman who, until 2019, was the director of energy policy at the european commission, in other words, one of the most senior officials on energy policy. megan richards, a real pleasure having you on the show and we really appreciate your time. and megan, let's start with this. can you just explain what role politicians have in making sure there's enough energy when it's commercial companies are entering into contracts? well, they set the groundwork. they have to make sure that the markets are operating correctly and well. each country in the european union,

according to the eu treaties, establishes its own energy mix and b the eu as a whole has an important energy union policy. and of course the first and most important element of that was diversification of supply, security of supply, making sure that europe as a major importer of energy, has enough to go around to make sure households are working properly. industry can function at a reasonable price and that transportation and all the other necessary elements into which energy feeds are available to the citizens of europe. well, let me ask you this, because we know europe has scrambled to sign more than 50 energy deals just this year. so i'm wondering, megan, just how much progress is being made on finding the long term solutions to replace russian energy? yeah, i think a lot of work has been done both at the level of the european commission, which is making huge efforts to discuss with energy partners around the world, with individual member states, of course, who are also going out to discuss

with various energy suppliers. but all the contracts normally would be signed between commercial partners and of course commercial entities. and of course commercial entities listen to what governments are saying. they listen to what's going on politically. but it's a commercial decision that they have to make. what are the risks for europe or elsewhere of signing up to these long term energy deals? i'm wondering how significant a risk is there of repeating the reliance on russia with reliance on somewhere else that may run into problems? well, i think in the case of russia is perhaps a bit special. it's a neighbouring country. pipe gas, of course, is easy to transport. it can come in very large quantities. it was cheap, whereas lng is really much more of a, let's call it a global commodity. so the likelihood also of getting

stuck with lng from only one country a, would be quite low because in the past there was a relative not dependence, let's say qatar had a larger share of the lpg market in europe than it does now. and of course the us has taken over a huge portion of a rising lng market, which of course had to rise in order to compensate for some of the russian gas reduction. but there are other countries that are capable of selling lng. well, let me end on this, meghan. is there likely to be a scenario where europe ever has energy independence? oh, my goodness. ithink... well, it would have to be very, very long term. i can't quite frankly, i don't see europe ever having full energy independence for the time being, given the current energy

sources that we use. perhaps if fusion becomes the energy of the future, that will be the case, and renewables, of course, will increase dramatically. i think europe will not be completely domestically independent for a very, very long time, if ever. well, on that point, megan richards, a real pleasure having you on the show. thanks for your time and i'll talk to you soon. thank you. so that need to come up with a new strategy to tackle the energy crisis is not lost on the companies that supply the market either. italy's enel, it's the world's second biggest energy company behind only the state grid corporation of china. and it's embarking on a very ambitious transformation plan, which will mean by 2040 it only sells electricity generated from renewable sources such as wind and solar. and i've been catching up with its big boss,

francesco. a real pleasure having you on the show. thanks for your time. francesco, let's start with this, because i want to hear your personal thoughts on how the war in ukraine, the russian invasion, has has reshaped our energy industry. well, i think it showed very clearly how a dependence on one single source of energy is dangerous for europe. and i think that that example is probably going to be repeated everywhere else if if people want to pay attention. honestly, this was not the first time we had already a pre—warning in 2014. and now we have to really take it seriously and understand that we have to do something about this. so a very tough year to be in the energy business with all of this volatility. and francesco, what have been the biggest challenges for you? i think the biggest challenge we've had is concentrate on our large customer base. i mean, we have in europe something close to 20 million customers

that we tried to shield from this volatility through the 20, 22 years, thanks to fixed price contracts we had stipulated in 2020 and 21, we typically sell for two years and we try to stick to our commitment with them, shielding them from this great crisis. why this is important, it's because, you know, our business is all about customers. we exist because of their demand and their needs for energy. and if we break the implicit back that links them with us, that's going to be a damage that is much worse than a hit on the economic results of a year or another. so we know gas prices have been at record highs, oil at near—record highs since the russian invasion. and it's left millions of households and businesses around the world just struggling to pay their energy bills without government help. so, francesco, what's it

going to take to to get them back i think it will take years. it will take two or three years before we start to see the big acceleration on renewables, denting the demand of of the generation of electricity that today is using gas. and during this time, all we have to do is make sure that we don't compromise the economic performance of europe and keep the lights on at the same time. so it's a big challenge, honestly. diversification of sources is important, but also reduction of gas demand wherever possible, is needed. there are industrial areas that need gas. they need a molecule of methane. and i think we need to work so that these people can work without us burning stupidly gas or for heating or for for generating electricity. we can do that with different systems that are, by the way, also more economically viable and more friendly

to the environment. so let's accelerate that. that's a focus in the next few years. francesco, as we know, you're trying to oversee a very ambitious refocusing of enel into a major player in renewable energy. and i'm wondering, has this global energy crisis, has it been a catalyst in terms of unlocking both the necessary funding and government support to to move away from fossil fuels? i think if there were any doubts, i think this crisis has wiped it out. i mean, it clearly is difficult to sustain the fact that we should not move to a different electricity mix. definitely. this has been. an acceleration in that sense. like all accelerations that happened late, you wish this acceleration would be even larger. and i think you will see, looking back maybe five years down the road,

we will say, where did it all happen? it happened in 22, 23 when this incredible mess took place and their everything started. i think we will see this acceleration retrospectively taking place across these couple of years. now that we are in the middle of it, we complain that it's not fast enough. so with your big push into renewables, let me ask you this, francesco. back injuly, the iea, the international energy agency, warned that china has an 80% share of the solar panel manufacturing industry. china also dominates wind turbine manufacturing. so how does the world stop itself becoming overreliant on china for renewables? just in the same way that we've seen with russia and fossil fuels. let's say that we are altogether overreliant in china from many, many things, notjust renewables. we made an implicit pact with asia. i would say in large that is the following.

we retain the right to buy what we want, when we want in the quantity we want at the price that is the cheapest possible. and somebody else should take care of investing in the factories and making this possible. and i think this implicit pact was a great pact looking at backwards, but also it went a little bit too far. now we discovered maybe it's a little bit pathological that we don't have a little bit more balanced supply, for example, pv panels. it is not rocket science. so we invest now in a factory. we have a 200 megawatt year production factory since 12 years now we have developed a new technology, very competitive, and we are now enlarging this factory to a 3000 megawatt per year production rate in europe. it looks a lot, but europe more or less absorbs 30,000 megawatts of pv panels every year. so we're looking just at 10%. it looks a lot, but it's nothing.

so i think some rebalancing. i'm not saying complete say self—reliance. this is crazy. but some rebalancing needs to be happening because it is healthy. and i think this russian example was maybe extreme, but lessons should be learned from that. the same would apply to the us and the us is more or less in the same situation. as far as pv panels are concerned and let me end on this. francesco, what is what's the future of europe's energy mix? where is it going to come from? i think it's going to be extremely decarbonised going forward and it is going to be nuclear and renewables most of the times. when i say that is because nothing is 100%. 0k. nothing is 100%. this is something we have to fight. 100%.

there will be, i think, for the next 20 years, a large fleet of thermal generation capacity idling in standbyjust in case regulators or grid operators see a problem on what they consider still an unreliable source of supply, which is renewables. i think after 15 years, somebody will start to say, why are we paying for this stuff we never use? but for sometimes we will have a lot of megawatts. just so that we feel confident that what we have built and works will keep working for the supply of energy of of europe, but it will be decarbonized. butjust on that point of of nuclear energy, i mean, if we look at italy, your country, it's banned it. germany wants to phase it out. and france has its own problems. but the uk is building one, right?

so i mean and spain still has some and i think france will finally resolve their problems. and by 2052, by 2040, sorry, we will probably have thorium based reactors that will not pose the nuclear proliferation problems that today we have with the new uranium and plutonium cycle. that will probably be the next fission generation for nuclear energy. mind you, not now, 2040. so we have to get there. well, on that point, francesco saatchi, the big boss of enel, really appreciate your time, my friend. thanks forjoining me and i'll check in with you soon. thank you. you know, one of the big questions that many politicians have been grappling with ever since japan's fukushima disaster is just what role nuclear energy will play in the future. is it the answer to cutting out fossil fuels and providing a reliable alternative to relying on countries such as russia and venezuela? well, earlier this year, the eu controversially labelled

nuclear as a green option, and that was well received by companies like the us firm light bridge, which is working on a new form of nuclear energy that it says is safer than ever. and i've been speaking to its chief executive, seth gray. a real pleasure having you on my show. thanks for your time. and seth, let'sjust start with this. just how much is the nuclear industry able to to step up to the challenge of supplying all this extra energy needed if we are to move away from carbon intensive sources? well, i think the nuclear industry can step up more than any other industry. right now, there are reactors that are slated to close in europe that can stay open, provide power, avoid providing hard currency or rubles to putin for his war, and can also save natural gas for storage in europe and in the uk for use during the winter for heat, rather than using it for non heat.

electricity. nuclear has the ability to scale up over the coming decade really faster than any other way other than relying on petro dictators for fossil fuels. but seth, i'm wondering what sort of timescales are we talking about here? because nuclear power stations notoriously take years to build. and let's be frank, they can cost a fortune. well, what we're talking about when we're talking about keeping plants open that are slated to close soon is something that can be done immediately. and then we could look at plants that have been closed relatively recently, particularly in germany, that perhaps could be reopened and other plants that over the coming couple of years might have been slated to close that could either keep operating or actually go through power up rates to increase the amount of power that come out of existing plants. and when we look at the reasons why nuclear plants have been delayed, have gone over budget, they're not due to the nuclear part of the reactor.

they're not due to the nuclear fuel or the core. the delays are due to complex, large welding and electrical work and piping and complex concrete pores. the same reasons why we're seeing bridges go overbudget behind schedule in europe, the uk, around the world, and in places where several reactors are built, like in the united arab emirates or in south korea, and the skilled workers hone these trades. we see that reactors can be deployed on schedule, on budget. and just briefly. so does any of this make financial sense? i mean, can it really compete with renewables? it's the only thing that makes sense. renewables will provide at most a quarter to a third of the power needed in any particular area due to intermittency of when the sun shines, when the wind blows. and we're simply not anywhere near time when we have large scale

economic battery storage to store the power from renewables and nuclear has a 3 million to 1 energy density advantage over fossil fuels. the amount of nuclear fuel to power one entire lifetime in the western world is about the size of a can of coca cola. this is something that really is necessary to wean us off fossil fuels and also stop dumping carbon into the atmosphere. what about, seth, the reliance on russia in this nuclear power world? i mean, again, these are the numbers i've got. russia owns something like 40% of the world's uranium conversion infrastructure. that's what you need, of course, to turn uranium or what we dig out of the ground into nuclear fuel. can this really be done without russia and also currently the largest?

you serve uranium ore by far is kazakhstan, one of russia's closest allies? well, in terms of conversion, next year, the united states will reopen a conversion plant in illinois. canada has a lot of conversion, as do several european countries, particularly france. and these are plants that can be expanded, new plants can be built. i don't think relying on russia for conversion is something that will prevent the growth of the nuclear power industry at all. seth, i want to talk to you about your company, light bridge. bear with me here because it specialises in making more efficient nuclear fuel. how much scope for power expansion is there just by tweaking what we already have? because as i understand it and correct me if i'm wrong, the idea is to get more from what's currently being used from power stations, as you've mentioned, already up and running, just by changing simply by changing the nature of the nuclear material being used. is that right? so light bridge has reimagined nuclearfuel.

we're designing it. we're testing it. we have a strategic relationship with the us government to do this in us government facilities at national laboratories. and this fuel will bring a tremendous increase in power to the existing reactors or new ones. and the fuel also really breaks the chain between anything between nuclear fuel and something that could be used in a nuclear weapon. so this is a fuel that also has tremendous safety advancements and within what's called a design basis, loss of coolant accident, you use the technical term. this fuel won't produce hydrogen, which is what exploded at fukushima. so what we've reimagined and are now testing is really a unique, tremendous leap forward for the nuclear power industry, for the existing big reactors and the coming small ones. and seth, let me end on this, what some people call the holy grail, nuclearfusion, a potential source of

almost unlimited power. are we anywhere close to it? well, the only one we're close to is the sun, and we're getting closer to commercial nuclear fusion. but in terms of reliable, large scale economic production of fusion power, we're probably still a few decades away. well, on that note, seth grae, a real pleasure having you on the show. thanks for your time. and i'd love to talk to you again soon. look forward to it. thank you. well, that's all for this week's show. i hope you enjoyed it. don't forget, you can keep up with all the latest on the global economy on the bbc news website and the smartphone app. of course, you can also follow me on twitter, tweet me, i'll tweet you back. you can get me @bbcaaron. thanks for watching. i'll see you soon. bye bye.

it is staying cold into part two of the waste —— weekend. all tied in with this gigantic area of high pressure sent across the north—west of pressure, some cold air circulating it and that will continue to feed showers. some clearer spells, temperatures are likely to drop below freezing so where we see showers and under skies, there is the risk of ice in places, watch out for that. sunday, a similar story, a bit more cloud around, better picture for scotland and northern ireland, some sunshine, some sunshine across western fringes of england and wales but eastern areas seem thicker cloud and showers. a little bit of a wintry

mix over the mountains of scotland. it will be cold, particularly if you factor in the wind.

this is bbc news, i'm martine croxall. the headlines at 4: health officials warn parents to look out for symptoms of a condition caused by strep a — six children have died recently in england and wales after contracting the infection. 39 unaccompanied albanian children who have come into the care of kent county council this year have gone missing — raising fears of human trafficking. a newspaper in greece says the british museum and the greek government have been in "secret talks" over a possible return of the elgin marbles. and, the world cup knockout stage is under way — at half time, the netherlands are beating the us 2—0.