Gabriela Hearst Talks Fusion Power at United Nations Climate Change Conference 2022

Nikara Johns
·2 min read
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Gabriela Hearst continued to push her message on the critical role fusion power has in the fight against climate change at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (CoP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Tuesday.

The designer joined David W. Livingston from the office of the Special Presidential Envoy, Dr. Tim Bestwick from the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), Jennifer Ganten from the Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), and Jessie Barton from Helion Energy on a panel that discussed importance of fusion power, an emerging clean energy source that has
tremendous potential to revolutionize the energy industry.

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According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, fusion is among the most environmentally friendly sources of energy. There are no CO2 or other harmful atmospheric emissions from the fusion process, for instance, which means that it does not contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

Fusion energy is produced by combining atoms to create heavier ones — it’s also the technology that uses the same reaction that powers the sun. Once developed, fusion will use a combination of lithium and hydrogen as fuel. It will also provide a combined source of thermal energy and power for hydrogen production, industrial heat, carbon capture, and desalination, per scientists.

In September, Hearst used her runway presentation for Chloé’s spring ’23 collection to bring awareness to the future of fusion energy where looks were inspired by isotope compositions and the runway was designed to resemble a tokamak reactor, which is the doughnut-shaped device that produces energy through the magnetic fusion of atoms. Hearst also conducted extensive research, speaking to engineers and scientists, as well as visiting Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Helion Energy and ITER.

“Fusion has become my Holy Grail since I believe in the possibility of fusion as one of the large scale solutions to our fossil fuel dependency. Any faculty or time I possess dedicated to Fusion makes me feel useful,” Hearst said during the panel on Tuesday. “To be in CoP27 among brilliant minds, from the public and private sector, seeing the engagement of these both sides, makes me hopeful that the commercialization of fusion will happen sooner than we think. That the engineering and plasma physics challenges that still need to be overcome have finally the support to breakthrough. All of this is good news.”

Ganten added: “We are closer than most people realize to developing and scaling
the critical solutions we need to reach net-zero emissions for the world to enjoy affordable, abundant clean energy.”

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