Source: Energy & Management Powernews, January 10, 2022
An alliance of nine climate protection organizations has called on the German government to reject the planned EU taxonomy, which wants to classify nuclear power and natural gas as environmentally friendly.
An alliance of climate protection organizations has called on January 7 the traffic light government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to vote against the taxonomy proposal of the EU Commission. The vote in the EU Council of Ministers will take place on January 12. The alliance consists of BUND, Campact, German Environmental Aid (DUH), the citizens' movement Finanzwende, Greenpeace, IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War), Naturschutzbund, Umweltinstitut and Uranium Network.
The proposal of the EU Commission provides for investments in nuclear power and natural gas to be classified as sustainable. The alliance sees this as threatening the energy transition and massively endangering Europe's climate protection. This is because investments would be diverted to fossil and nuclear technologies instead of renewable energies and CO2-free flexibility options. According to the assessment of the alliance, the plans also undermine the basic idea of the taxonomy as a kind of sustainability label.
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"If climate-damaging and high-risk energy sources are also considered sustainable, the entire label will be devalued - this would have a fatal international signal effect," warns the alliance. The organizations, together with their supporters, therefore call on the traffic light government to vote against the EU Commission's proposal in the EU Council of Ministers. If necessary, the traffic light government would have to take legal action against it before the European Court of Justice. However, natural gas in particular is included in the taxonomy on the initiative of the German government. It is to serve as a bridge fuel for the phase-out of coal and nuclear power.
Christoph Bautz, Executive Director of Campact, said, "Olaf Scholz has presented himself in the election campaign as climate chancellor - now he must also redeem this." , Magdalena Senn, consultant for sustainable financial markets at the citizens' movement Finanzwende, criticized, "With its caving in to national interests, the EU Commission is doing a disservice to sustainable financial markets in Europe and is greenwashing."
Luxembourg and Austria want to reject taxonomy
The Luxembourg government has announced legal action against the EU Commission's plans to classify nuclear and gas power plants as climate-friendly. "We will join a lawsuit," Environment Minister Carole Dieschbourg told digital media outlet Table.Media. Earlier, Austria had threatened to sue. Dieschbourg said both governments had agreed to respond immediately once the EU Commission adopted the act.
Angelika Claußen, co-chair of IPPNW, said, "For France, there is a clear military interest in investing in the obsolete nuclear energy industry." To this end, she quoted Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron, who had said in 2020, "Without civilian nuclear energy, there is no military use, and without military use, there is no civilian nuclear energy."
Author: Susanne Harmsen