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China consumes 28x more energy than the UK.
Why is the UK even bothering with carbon reduction?
I work in the nuclear industry, so the World Nuclear Association (WNA) recently released World Nuclear Performance Report made it onto my reading list.
A big takeaway was that the world's nuclear power plants generated more than 2,650 TWh of energy in 2021.
Every one of these terawatt-hours is clean, carbon-free energy and helps the planet fight against climate change.
My curiosity got me thinking about the scale of our energy crisis, leading me down a rabbit hole.
How much is 2,650 TWh?
The WNA reported that nuclear energy generated 2,650 TWh of clean energy in 2021.
For context, the globe consumes just under 24,000 TWh of energy annually. Around 4,100 is consumed by the USA and China consumes over 8,300 TWh of energy. The UK consumed 294.4 TWh in 2021.
These stats put two questions in my mind —
- Nuclear energy provides over 10% of the globe's energy as clean energy. However, I understand many existing plants are due to retire. So what will that do to the numbers considering the increase in new builds in the recent year?
- If China consumes over 28 times more energy than a country like the UK, why are such countries bending over backwards to reduce their carbon dependence?
