Brussels, 03.01.2022. The EU Commission has announced that both nuclear energy and fossil gas will be included in the so-called EU taxonomy. The taxonomy provides necessary guidelines for sustainable and future-oriented investments in the economic transformation of Europe. With the decision now taken, both nuclear energy and fossil gas will be labelled as “sustainable” energy sources.

Manuela Ripa, Member of the European Parliament for the Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP), is outraged by the decision: “The nuclear lobby is obviously very successful in using the taxonomy as a gateway for a comeback of nuclear energy. It is getting support from several member states, led by France. If nuclear power is classified as “sustainable”, it can hope for EU subsidies as well as private investments. It is clear, however, that nuclear power cannot be a way out of the climate crisis. Apart from the safety risks and the unsolved final storage problem, nuclear power is far too expensive. The money should rather be invested in renewable energies, which can provide infinitely clean energy. The energy can be stored via hydrogen.”

As for the inclusion of fossil gas in the taxonomy, the MEP points out that gas produces large amounts of climate-damaging gases along its extraction and transport chain, especially methane, whose climate-damaging effect is quite a bit higher than that of CO2, which is released when gas is burned. Contrary to what is often claimed, gas is thus hardly less harmful to the climate than coal and oil. Fossil fuels should have no place at all in the regulation as it stands, Ripa said, because otherwise, the EU Commission would be putting the credibility of the “European Green Deal” at risk.

“Gas can only be accepted if the associated infrastructure is made “hydrogen ready” and there is a clear end date set in advance and well before 2049 for fossil gas. Anything else is greenwashing,” the MEP said.

Manuela Ripa will advocate in the European Parliament that nuclear power and gas in the current fossil form may not be called sustainable in the taxonomy.

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