Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi today, with energy cooperation dominating the agenda. The talks signal a deepening of US-India ties amid global efforts to decarbonise, but a notable subtext is Britain's renewed push for a civil nuclear partnership with India, leveraging its post-Brexit flexibility. The urgency is palpable: global carbon emissions are still rising, and the window to avert catastrophic warming is shrinking.
The meeting, which lasted over two hours, covered solar and wind energy, critical minerals supply chains, and clean hydrogen. However, the most substantive discussions centred on nuclear power. India, which runs 22 nuclear reactors with a capacity of 6.8 GW, aims to triple its nuclear capacity by 2030 under its energy transition roadmap. Yet domestic legislation and international restrictions have stymied progress.
Britain, once a hesitant player in India's nuclear ambitions, is now aggressively courting New Delhi. The UK's new 'Nuclear Collaboration Agreement' would allow UK firms to supply reactors and fuel, bypassing the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) restrictions that have hindered US companies. The logic is clear: nuclear offers steady baseload power without emissions. As Dr. Vance noted in her recent analysis for The Guardian, 'Renewables alone cannot meet the industrial demand of a growing economy like India's. Nuclear is the complementary constant in the equation.'
The strategic calculus is twofold. First, reducing dependence on fossil fuels: India imports over 80% of its oil. Second, countering China's influence in the Indo-Pacific. China is already building nuclear plants in Pakistan and offering deals to Bangladesh. Britain's move, backed by the US, is a tactical play for influence.
Rubio's statement echoed this: 'Energy is not just climate policy. It is national security policy.' He emphasised that the US supports India's early membership in the NSG, a long-standing demand. But critics argue this risks a nuclear arms race in South Asia. Dr. Seema Desai from the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi warned, 'Without strict safeguards, this could normalise nuclear expansion in a volatile region.'
The physics, however, is unforgiving. The Earth's average temperature has already risen 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels. To stay under 1.5°C, global emissions must halve by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. For India, whose per capita emissions are a third of the global average, the challenge is to grow without emitting. Nuclear is one of the few technologies that can provide large-scale, low-carbon power 24/7.
But the timeline is tight. Building a nuclear plant takes 8-12 years. The World Nuclear Association estimates that to meet India's 2030 targets, it would need to start construction on at least 10 new reactors this year. Britain is offering to fast-track approval for its Rolls-Royce small modular reactors (SMRs), which can be factory-built and assembled on site, cutting construction time to 4 years. A pilot plant could be operational by 2028.
Yet this is only a sliver of the solution. The International Energy Agency says India needs to add 600 GW of renewable capacity by 2030, a tenfold increase from now. Solar is abundant but intermittent. Storage is the bottleneck. Current battery capacity would power India for only 4 minutes. Hydrogen is promising but inefficient: 70% of energy is lost in production.
The meeting concluded with a joint statement reaffirming commitment to the US-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030. But beneath the rhetoric, the data is clear: without rapid scaling of all low-carbon technologies, including nuclear, the planet's biosphere will continue to unravel. Calm urgency is required.
