Under India’s presidency, G20 aims to address the pressing issues of climate change and energy security by building a sense of trusteeship to achieve clean energy transition. Four Energy Transition Working Group (ETWG) meetings, various side events, and a Ministerial Meeting are planned “to advance cooperation in clean energy transition and make it central to the agenda of sustainable economic development.”
To enable such transition, six priority areas are focused on in the G20 meetings: addressing technology gaps; low-cost financing; energy security and diversified supply chains; energy efficiency, industrial low-carbon transitions, and responsible consumption; fuels for the future; and universal access to clean energy, and just, affordable, and inclusive energy transition pathways.
In this pursuit, while all options of “developing resilient renewable energy” sources like solar, wind, biofuel, battery, green hydrogen, etc. are pondered during the last two ETWG meetings, India has reportedly stressed “nuclear power as a non-renewable source of energy”, therefore, is out of the G20 deliberation agenda currently; the reason being the member countries’ favour for “a people-centric energy transition mechanism,” says Alok Kumar, Secretary (Power) Government of India.
Significant technology for clean energy systems
During Indonesia’s Presidency of G20 (2021-22), nuclear power’s role in the clean energy transition was debated in a virtual event. Prahoro Nurtjahyo, Co-Chair of the G20 ETWG, asserted that “nuclear will be a significant technology for clean energy systems, not only for developed countries but also emerging economies and developing countries.” Similarly, Rafael Mariano Grossi, on the eve of the G20 Bali summit, said that the G20 “as a collective community…be very clear that we will need nuclear power….and nuclear deserves a footing equal to other low-carbon sources in the green transition….”
Earlier in September 2020, the G20 Energy Ministerial Meeting Communique recognised the role of nuclear energy in providing clean energy in the promotion of the Circular Carbon Economy (CCE) for those who opt to use it, as well as in enhancing energy security; though challenges like decommissioning of reactors and disposal of waste are yet to be addressed amicably.
However, the current G20 agenda on energy transition pathways does not indicate any compromise with the present availability of the energy base of member countries; rather it suggests exploration of all feasible sources to achieve energy security; but the nuclear energy component does not find “equal footing for collaborative action” in the grouping’s current deliberations. If ‘people-centricity’ is the current G20 mantra for ensuring energy security, is nuclear energy not people-centric? If renewable sources are the main target, atomic energy is renewable, though nuclear fuel (Uranium) is non-renewable.
How should we posit a clean and abundant source of energy like nuclear in the energy transition pathways? Is it prudent to overlook the carbon-free record of an energy source for its non-renewable nature? Can collaborative efforts by the G20 not help address the inherent technology gaps in the production of safe nuclear energy?
Ironically, all but five G20 countries have operating nuclear reactors; out of the five non-nuclear countries, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have already ventured into the civil nuclear program. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) 2018 report, nuclear power alone accounts for around 12% of total electricity generation in G20 countries. Of the 446 nuclear reactors operating worldwide, 89% are in G20 countries; of the 59 reactors under construction globally, 47 are in G20 countries; As per the latest trends, China, France and Russia are expected to consume most nuclear energy until 2026.
Nuclear energy remains the “second largest low-carbon source of low-emission power after hydropower” and a competitive source of reliable and sustainable energy. A number of G20 countries, including China, India, USA and Russia, have identified nuclear power as a key part of their energy transitions, and of the ten countries that explicitly included nuclear in their climate action plan, five are G20 countries (Argentina, China, India, Japan and Turkey).
More than just a power source
Nuclear energy is more than just a power source; besides electricity generation and contribution to the circular carbon economy, nuclear energy offers unique opportunities to deliver valuable non-electric applications, ranging from district and industrial heat applications, desalination, and large-scale hydrogen production, etc. Nuclear energy production and consumption “has avoided about 70 giga tonnes of CO2 and reduced the enormous number of deaths caused by air pollution.” It can also reduce CO2 emissions generated by the industry in non-electrical applications, such as hydrogen production, industrial steam, and water desalination.
In fact, according to IMF report (2021), “investment in nuclear power produced the biggest economic multiplier effect of any clean energy source, producing about 25 per cent more employment per unit of electricity than wind power, with workers in the nuclear industry earning one-third more than those in the renewable energy industry.”
Non-inclusion of nuclear energy component in the energy transition agenda of G20 for it not renewable and people-centric seems a drastic departure from the collective community effort to upgrade nuclear technology that provides a quarter of the world’s low-carbon electricity today. One wonders which other clean, renewable, people-centric energy option can cater to the base-load energy requirement for heavy industries today! In reality, energy ‘efficiency’ should play an important role in all future energy systems, not just ‘renewability’.
The side-effects of massive renewable energy projects like solar is yet to come to light. Especially management of the solar PV waste, its land footprint vis-à-vis other sources, health hazards, etc. must factor in. The Vivekanand International Foundation (VIF) Task Force on India’s Energy Transition asserts that the “Renewables have a much larger land footprint than nuclear power plants.”
Need of the hour
Therefore, the need of the hour is to delve into and ponder over global best practices to address technological gaps, patronaging innovative risk-free reactor designs, reducing gestation period, extending reactor lifespan, increasing cost-competitiveness, and solving waste disposal problems, the G20 forum could have carried forward global efforts to harness a clean and abundant source of energy.
Besides, prominent members of the G20 such as China, India, Russia, South Korea and the USA are striving to increasing their nuclear energy consumption significantly in the foreseeable future. “Nuclear make a huge contribution in providing stability to a carbon-neutral power system in China in 2060.” It has increased its nuclear energy consumption during 2011 to 2021 and is expected to ascend until 2026. “India’s consumption may increase from 0.4 exajoules in 2021 to 0.57 exajoules in 2026.”
Similar push for increasing nuclear energy’s share in the energy basket is happening in Global South countries. Bangladesh is completing the country’s first nuclear power plant with the help of Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom. Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Indonesia are some other Global South countries turning towards nuclear to fulfil the energy demand.
When a majority of members, and significant number of countries from Global South, have been sure of and embarked on ambitious nuclear energy projects as part of their green energy transition mechanism, the exclusion of nuclear energy in formal deliberations of G20 may strengthen the prevailing public scepticism involving nuclear technology in general, and weaken any collective action for maturing nuclear technology in particular.
— The author, Dr Sitakanta Mishra, is Associate Professor at School of Liberal Studies, Pandit Deendayal Energy University, Gujarat
(Edited by : C H Unnikrishnan)
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