Germany, Austria and Luxembourg attacked Brussels’ plan to classify nuclear power as a sustainable technology in the European Union’s rating system for green investments, which is central to plans to decarbonize the bloc’s economy.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who is a member of the Green Party in the country’s governing coalition, said: “It is questionable whether this ‘greening’ will be accepted in the financial market.” Habeck told German news agency DPA on Saturday that “there was no need for this addition to the classification rules”.
The Brussels proposal is part of the so-called “taxonomy” list, which aims to help channel billions of euros in investments needed to decarbonize the European bloc’s economy.
The plan, the first attempt by a major regulatory body to enlighten investors who want to invest private capital in sustainable economic activity, covers about 80% of the bloc’s emissions and is intended to be the “gold standard” for markets to decide what is it really green or not.
But the process was disrupted by bitter political struggles within the European Commission and its member countries.
Leonore Gewessler, Austria’s climate and energy minister, said on Saturday that Vienna would consider suing the European Commission if the classification of nuclear energy as green goes ahead. Claude Turmes, Luxembourg’s energy minister, called the inclusion of nuclear power a “provocation.”
The inclusion of nuclear power is widely considered a victory for the French government, which has called on Brussels to guarantee new rules not to punish a technology that supplies nearly two-thirds of French electricity. Nuclear reactors do not generate CO emissions2, but produce highly toxic waste.
The inclusion of natural gas also means that several European economies that depend on gas imports from southern and eastern Europe will support the initiative.
The inclusion of gas is also supported by German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, who is the leader of the Liberal Party in the governing coalition. The draft proposal says that gas can be considered sustainable under certain conditions, such as that new gas plants approved before the end of 2030 emit less than 270g of CO2 per kilowatt hour and replace traditional fossil fuels such as coal.
“Germany really needs gas-fired power plants as a transitional technology because we are moving away from coal and nuclear power,” Lindner told the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper on Sunday (2). “I’m grateful that the arguments seem to have been adopted by the commission.”
Three German nuclear power plants were shut down at the end of 2021, with the other three facilities in the country due to be retired within a year, as part of the commitment to phase out all nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster, in Japan, in 2011.
The draft text from Brussels will be part of a consultation with European countries and independent experts that will take place until 12 January. However, European governments against nuclear energy will not have the power to veto the taxonomy, which diplomats say tends to win the support of most of the European Council.
Astrid Matthey, one of the independent experts who advises the commission on the rules, criticized the draft as “contradicting the very purpose of taxonomy”.
“The conditions under which the two technologies must be included are far from ensuring that we will reach the Paris climate goals and will not significantly harm the environment. There is still a long way to go before this draft aligns with the Green Agreement and the EU’s environmental goals,” Matthey said.
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