President Masato Kanda of the Asian Development Bank – ADB and International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi have inked a memorandum of understanding – MOU in order to make the cooperation on the usage of nuclear energy in Asia as well as the Pacific more robust.
The agreement goes on to establish an outline for both the organizations to go ahead and support nations that are exploring usage of nuclear energy, which includes the potential of small modular reactors, being part of their efforts in order to increase energy access and at the same time enhance energy security. ADB is the first regional development bank that has signed such a partnership agreement along with the IAEA.
As per the MOU, ADB, along with IAEA, is going to collaborate in order to build knowledge as well as technical capacity throughout the full nuclear life cycle. Major areas of cooperation go on to include energy planning and management when it comes to nuclear fuel cycles as well as radioactive waste, along with the life cycle management of nuclear facilities. Apparently, IAEA is also going to support informed decision-making through offering guidance in terms of safety, safeguards, security and also stakeholder engagement.
As per Kanda, with the updated energy policy of the ADB recognizing nuclear power as an option to fossil fuels when it comes to baseload generation, the agreement makes sure that developing member countries opting for this path do so with strong safeguards, robust governance, as well as a clear commitment when it comes to sustainability. He added that they are indeed committed to helping the region make those informed choices that balance the requirement for energy access with the imperative of energy security as well as a sustainable future.
Kanda went on to stress that the collaboration of ADB with IAEA goes beyond the newly expanded cooperation within the energy sector to also include joint efforts in terms of safeguarding the ocean’s health and also addressing the escalating microplastics challenge in the region.
Grossi remarked that the agreement goes on to mark quite a significant step forward. As ADB opens the gates to financing nuclear power, they will move rapidly to identify the practical areas in terms of collaboration that respond to the growing energy requirements of the countries throughout the region. The new direction on nuclear financing by the ADB as well as the technical leadership of the IAEA is indeed going to create a strong combination. Their teams are now going to start shaping concrete steps that deliver dependable, low-carbon energy and at the same time also strengthen the resilience for many people.
It is well to be noted that ADB is a leading multilateral development bank that supports growth throughout Asia as well as the Pacific. ADB, which was founded in 1966, makes use of innovative financial tools as well as strategic partnerships in order to build infrastructure. ADB is owned by 69 members, of which 50 are from the region.
In a statement, ADB went on to state that the recent changes to its energy policy are indeed going to allow it to support the nuclear power projects for the very first time, including financing nuclear energy across developing member countries that opt to include it within their energy mix. But any support would have to go through certain strict evaluations and also meet the highest standards in terms of safety and security as well as environmental and social safeguards.
Notably, ADB has also widened its scope of energy policy to go ahead and include methane-management projects as well as expanded its eligibility criteria when it comes to carbon capture, utilization, and storage in order to cover schemes by way of using depleted oil and gas reservoirs so as to have long-term carbon dioxide storage, thereby further signalling its intent to support a much broader toolkit of technologies that are aimed at decarbonizing the energy systems in Asia.
The changes are indeed a part of a compulsory scheduled review of the present energy policy, which was approved in October 2021, and were informed by extensive consultations done with the stakeholders of ADB. In 2024, ADB went on to commit almost $3.8bn towards energy projects. In addition to this, the bank has also been helping to make the policy and regulatory environments strong in order to support the robust private-sector investments and also meet the rapidly increasing energy demand of the region.
Interestingly, the agreement with IAEA goes on to follow the agreement of the agency with the World Bank earlier in 2025 and also paves the way for certain other global development institutions in order to support nuclear power. IAEA goes on to list 37 embarking countries that are considering, planning, or pretty well advanced in terms of introducing nuclear power within their energy mix. Notably, over a third of them are member countries of the ADB.