China highlights nuclear innovation to meet climate goals at IAEA conference

China’s initiatives to address climate change with nuclear power, including through the development of innovative reactor technologies, were the focus of an event held on the sidelines of the International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power.

China is at the forefront of nuclear power expansion, leading the way in installed capacity as well as number of reactors under construction.

China has 48 nuclear power reactors in operation and nine under construction, according to the IAEA’s Power Reactor Information System (PRIS). It’s one of a handful of countries that has included nuclear power along with renewable energy sources in its nationally determined contribution (NDC) towards achieving the goals to limit global warming under the 2016 Paris Agreement. China is scaling up its low carbon energy capacity via sources including solar, wind and hydroelectric, with plans to have at least 53 GW(e) of installed nuclear power capacity by 2020.

“The Chinese government is committed to reducing the carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65% compared with 2005 levels by 2030,”said Kejian Zhang, Chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA).

Nuclear power currently provides about 4% of China’s electricity. However, as part of China’s plans to generate 20% of its electricity from non-fossil sources by 2030, nuclear power’s share is expected to rise to as much as 10% over the next decade.

China is also supporting the development of nuclear power programmes in other countries in order to help them achieve their sustainable development goals.

Original source: IAEA
Published on 09 October 2019