No more greenwashing, a science-based and credible taxonomy is needed
20. December 2021
A group of three EU lawmakers have written to express concerns about strong political pressure to include gas and nuclear power in the EU’s green finance taxonomy.
This opinion article is co-signed by three members of the European Parliament: Michèle Rivasi (Greens/EFA, France), Andreas Schieder (S&D, Austria), and Cornelia Ernst (The Left, Germany).
The EU taxonomy is a tool to define which economic activities are considered “sustainable”. A proposal to include additional activities in the taxonomy is to be published by the European Commission before Christmas.
We, members of the European Parliament, are concerned about strong political pressure to include gas and nuclear power in the taxonomy, despite the fact that this tool is initially based on science.
A few weeks before the start of the French presidency of the European Union, we warn that putting these two polluting energies on the same level as renewable energies will sabotage the European energy transition.
The inclusion of nuclear and gas energies, even as transitional activities, is incompatible with the scientific principles set out in the taxonomy regulation. Fossil gas contributes directly to climate change and will block us for decades.
The IPCC’s 1.5 report clearly states that no new fossil fuel infrastructure can be built if this temperature target is to be met. Nuclear power, for its part, is too dangerous, too wasteful, too expensive and too slow to respond to environmental challenges.
There are good reasons nuclear power and fossil gas have not been included in the taxonomy developed by the Commission’s original group of technical experts, because of its inability to meet the taxonomy’s “do not no significant harm” principle.
Indeed, the risks of nuclear power cannot be denied: nuclear power has caused several major disasters with immeasurable consequences, it lacks resilience to climate change, and uranium mining and processing takes place outside the EU, where it cannot be monitored.
Through the use of nuclear power 300,000 tonnes of highly radioactive material have already been accumulated around the world. This is a catastrophic environmental burden that we will leave behind for future generations for many thousands of years.
The only existing deep disposal sites (Asse in Germany and WIPP in the US) pose complex technical and administrative problems for the authorities and are a great burden for the local environment and population.
Nuclear power is an expensive technology, slow to develop and subject to major delays, as illustrated by the Flamanville EPR project in France. And yet we need to drastically reduce our emissions in less than a decade.
Including harmful and polluting activities in the EU taxonomy would destroy the credibility of the European Union in this field. After all, the green taxonomy does not prohibit investment in polluting activities, it is a transparency tool that prevents unsustainable activities from being presented to investors as “green”.
Recent statements by the European Commission have been met with strong criticism, including from national governments, UN bodies, environmental groups and investors who will lose confidence in the tool. The Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, formed by the United Nations and representing 10 trillion dollars in assets, has said it would oppose such a decision.
Above all, there is no legal basis for including nuclear energy in the European green taxonomy. A legal analysis commissioned by the Austrian government states that this inclusion is incompatible with the legal basis of Article 10 of the Taxonomy Regulation.
The conclusion is clear: nuclear power can neither be considered a green activity nor a transitional activity. The latter covers only carbon-intense activities and requires not to be an obstacle to low-carbon alternatives. This is not the case for nuclear.
Austria, as well as Germany, Denmark, Luxembourg and Portugal, can count on our support to challenge this decision before the Court. Taxonomy is built on scientific principles, which cannot simply be changed at political discretion. That is not what serious policy is about.
Classifying investments that have no long-term future as “green” under the Green Deal would make it difficult to create green markets at home and abroad. We cannot afford such a mistake. Time is running out. The decade to address climate change has already begun.
A group of three EU lawmakers have written to express concerns about strong political pressure to include gas and nuclear power in the EU's green finance taxonomy.
www.euractiv.com
LEAK: EU drafts plan to label gas and nuclear investments as green
The European Union, has drawn up plans to label some natural gas and nuclear energy power plants as “transitional” or “green” investments provided they meet specific criteria such as displacing more polluting coal plants.
The European Commission is expected to propose rules in January deciding whether gas and nuclear projects will be included in the EU “sustainable finance taxonomy”.
This is a list of economic activies and the environmental criteria they must meet to be labelled as green investments. By restricting the “green” label to truly climate friendly projects, the system aims to make those investments more attractive to private capital, and stop “greenwashing”, where companies or investors overstate their eco-friendly credentials.
Brussels has also made moves to apply the taxonomy to some EU funding, meaning the rules could decide which projects are eligible for certain public finance.
A draft of the Commission’s proposal, obtained by EURACTIV, would label nuclear power plant investments as green if the project has a plan, funds and a site to safely dispose of radioactive waste. To be deemed green, new nuclear plants must receive construction permits before 2045.
The lifetime extension of existing power plants will also be considered green “in view of the long lead times for investments in new nuclear generation capacity,” the draft says. To be considered green, these will however need to “include modifications and safety upgrades” to ensure they comply with “the highest achievable safety standards”, according to the draft.
Investments in natural gas power plants would also be deemed green if they produce emissions below 270g of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt hour, replace a more polluting fossil fuel plant, and receive a construction permit by Dec. 31 2030. Such plants must meet other conditions including that they are technically equipped to burn low-carbon gases.
Gas power generation would be labelled green on the grounds that it is a “transitional” activity – defined as one that is not fully sustainable, but which has emissions below industry average and does not lock in polluting assets during the shift to clean energy.
The Commission could not immediately be reached for comment.
Scrutiny
EU countries and a panel of expert advisors will scrutinise the draft proposal, which could change before it is due to be published later in January. EU member states were given until 12 January to provide feedback, EURACTIV understands.
Once published, the proposal can be vetoed by a majority of EU countries or by the European Parliament, but it cannot be amended.
The policy has been mired in lobbying from governments for more than a year and EU countries disagree on which fuels are truly sustainable.
Natural gas emits roughly half the CO2 emissions of coal when burned in power plants, but gas infrastructure is also associated with leaks of methane, a potent planet-warming gas.
The EU’s expert advisers had recommended that gas plants not be labelled as green investments unless they met a lower 100g CO2/kwh emissions limit, based on the deep emissions cuts scientists say are needed to avoid disastrous climate change.
Nuclear power produces very low CO2 emissions but the Commission sought expert advice this year on whether the fuel should be deemed green given the potential environmental impact of radioactive waste disposal.
Brussels finished the rules last year for parts of the green list including sectors such as buildings and transport and from this month investments not included in the taxonomy cannot be marketed as climate-friendly in the EU. The gas and nuclear rules will kick in later.
The European Union, has drawn up plans to label some natural gas and nuclear energy power plants as "transitional" or "green" investments provided they meet specific criteria such as displacing more polluting coal plants.
www.euractiv.com
