EU: Criticism in Germany and Austria over ‘green’ investments in nuclear energy and gas

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The European Commission’s draft directive calling for some environmentally friendly investments in gas and nuclear power plants to be described as environmentally friendly has been criticized, especially in Austria, for threatening to sue.

“If this plan is submitted as it stands, we will go to court,” Austrian Climate Action Minister Leonore Gβvesler said on Twitter, after the Commission released a draft of the directive on Saturday.
The proposal is controversial; it was formulated amid controversy in Europe over the meaning of the phrase “clean energy”.

Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. Nuclear energy, according to them, should also be described as environmentally friendly (“green”), since the factories that use it do not emit gases that cause the greenhouse effect and global warming.

Opponents of the proposal, however, argue that the gas is not clean enough and stress the long-term dangers of radioactive waste.

The Commission proposal proposes conditions to characterize investments as environmentally friendly. For example, investments in nuclear power plants that use nuclear reactors will be green if they use modern technological standards and include complete waste plans, and if they are put into operation by 2050 at the latest.

They should also have secured construction permits by 2045, according to the draft, which was consulted by the German Agency.

For Ms Gevesler, the European Commission is trying to put on an “ecological mask” in nuclear energy and gas. “Nuclear power is dangerous and is not a solution to the fight against climate change,” she added.

Its positions are shared by Social Democrat (SPD) politicians in the Bundestag, the German lower house. “Germany must do everything in its power to prevent the technology from being promoted at European level,” Matthias Myers, deputy head of the Social Democrats’ parliamentary group, told AFP.

“Nuclear energy is not sustainable and in no way makes sense from an economic point of view,” he insisted.
He also pointed out the cost of storing nuclear waste and the fact that new nuclear power plants could not be built without “massive public funding”.

“The future must belong only to renewable energy sources – especially at EU level,” said Mr Myers, whose party leads the ruling coalition with the Green and Free Democrats.
“If nuclear aid is added to carbon pricing, the result will be a huge distortion of competition. “Instead, we need to have a dialogue on the appropriate pricing of nuclear energy.”

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) also criticized the European Commission proposal.
“The European Commission’s quote on nuclear energy and gas seems to be ‘close your eyes and hope everything goes well,'” said Matthias Kopp, director of investment in sustainable projects at WWF Germany.

After months of delays, the Commission has given Member States’ expert groups just eight working days to respond to the plan, he added. He accused Brussels of trying to avoid critical voices from the scientific field.

The draft directive also provokes controversy in Italy, where Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League (far right), has once again put on the table the possibility of building nuclear power plants on Italian soil. Rome stopped using nuclear energy after the Chernobyl accident in the late 1980s.

“Italy can not remain inactive,” Matteo Salvini argued via Twitter. “The League is ready to start collecting signatures to organize a referendum so that our country can move towards an independent, secure and clean energy future.”

In 2011, the Italians had rejected the return of nuclear energy. Other factions in the country’s multi-party governing coalition, such as the Five Star Movement, explicitly reject nuclear power. However, the dramatic rise in electricity and gas prices has brought the issue to the forefront of the political dialogue.

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