On Thursday 11 November, Austria, Luxembourg, Denmark, Germany and Portugal issued a joint statement, calling for nuclear energy not to be included in the European Union’s taxonomy at the 26th session of the UN climate conference (COP26) in Glasgow.
“We are concerned that including nuclear power in the Taxonomy would permanently damage its integrity, credibility and therefore its usefulness”, the statement said, while recognising “the sovereign right of Member States to decide for or against nuclear energy”.
Adopted in June 2020 (see EUROPE 12509/12), the EU Taxonomy Regulation (2020/852) aims to establish a number of criteria to define which investments can be considered environmentally sustainable and thus assist investors in their choices.
It is to be supplemented by further delegated acts (see EUROPE 12392/14), including one - expected before the end of the year - which will cover fossil gas and nuclear power.
However, the five countries that signed the declaration consider that nuclear energy is incompatible with the ‘do no significant harm’ principle of the regulation.
They fear that savers and investors will lose confidence in financial products labelled as ‘sustainable’ by the EU taxonomy for fear of financing nuclear energy activities.
A few months ago, these same Member States, with Spain in place of Portugal, sent a similar letter to the European Commission (see EUROPE 12754/8).
When contacted by EUROPE, a member of the Spanish government explained that his country had not signed the declaration because it only covers nuclear power, not gas. “Germany does not support excluding gas of the taxonomy, therefore we have not wanted to join this statement”, he said.
See the statement: https://bit.ly/3HfHrSa (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)