China Might Be About To Save The World
China Might Be About To Save The World
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I have said it a million times by now, but nuclear power is one of our best tools to save the planet. It’s statistically the safest form of energy we have, integrates perfectly into our current energy grids, and has one of the lowest carbon footprints of any form of energy. Conversely, coal is the largest driver of climate change, accounting for around 30% of global emissions. In fact, we can actually meet many of our global climate targets and save the planet by simply phasing out coal plants ASAP. This should be relatively easy, as one single country, China, is responsible for over 64% of global coal emissions. So, the fact that China is building nuclear power at a record pace is incredible. The country approved 10 reactors in 2022, another 10 in 2023, and now 11 in 2024, putting them on course to become the world’s biggest nuclear generator by 2030. So, does this mean China can finally kick its coal addiction and save the world? Well… yes and no.
Let’s address the elephant in the room first. While China is building out its nuclear capacity at breakneck speed, it isn’t enough to stem its coal-hungry nature. For example, China added 30 GW of nuclear capacity in 2023, but also added 47.4 GW of coal power the same year. Moreover, the recently approved reactors will take years, sometimes even decades, to build and connect to the energy grid. As such, China simply can’t replace its coal with nuclear power.
What’s more, China’s approach to building these reactors is weird.
You’d think they would have a handful of standard designs. This would enable them to streamline production, construction, and licensing, meaning their nuclear roll-out can be more efficient, faster, and on a larger scale. But that isn’t the case. Instead, China has commissioned or has in construction 23 unique nuclear reactor designs! This spreads their resources thin, slowing production and licencing to a crawl. This is one of the main reasons China’s nuclear program hasn’t met its targets in 30 years.
So what is China doing? And how is this helping to save the world?
Well, China isn’t focusing on its domestic nuclear market but instead on the export market. As such, they have to build at least one of every type of reactor any foreign customer might want to buy for their countries. This is why 6 of the 11 nuclear reactors commissioned this year were brand new, never been built before.
So, how is this saving the world? This still isn’t enough to negate China’s coal-hungry ways.
While their nuclear expansion isn’t enough to replace coal, their renewable expansion is. This year, China built so much renewable capacity that it was able to reduce its coal consumption by 7%. This trend is set to not only continue, but grow stronger. As such, China’s emissions are set to tumble well before 2030.
China doesn’t need nuclear power to meet its emissions targets. But the rest of the world does. During COP28, 22 countries, including the UK, the US and Canada, signed a pledge to triple their nuclear capacity. This pledge is crucial to these countries reaching net zero, as unlike China, they are massively struggling to build renewables fast enough. These countries also have very stagnant nuclear industries and likely can’t design or construct enough nuclear power plants on their own to meet this pledge.
But guess which nation already sells nuclear power plants to most of these 22 nations? That’s right, China. It doesn’t matter what their needs are; China can sell them an already proven nuclear power plant design that perfectly meets their specifications.
So, not only is China using renewables to decarbonise itself rapidly (or at least more rapidly than most), but it is also poised to supply the rest of the world with the technology it needs to decarbonise. The questionable geopolitics of this aside, China’s actions here might be the difference between us saving the planet from ourselves or witnessing a self-inflicted apocalypse.
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