On Tuesday 11 January, Nathan Fabian, chairman of the ‘Platform on Sustainable Finance’ - a stakeholder group advising the European Commission on taxonomy - welcomed the Commission’s decision to extend the consultation period on the inclusion of fossil gas and nuclear in the EU taxonomy to 21 January (see EUROPE 12865/9).
The extra time will allow the Platform to “follow its usual work process”, synthesising the comments of its 57 members to provide “a single platform report” to the Commission, Mr Fabian said, going back on a previous statement.
He had previously announced, on 6 January, that in view of the initially very short timeframe for consultation, Platform member organisations would submit individual comments, rather than the usual consensus input (see EUROPE 12864/5).
The Commission remains under pressure
In a letter to the Commission, the association representing Europe’s nuclear industry, Foratom, called on the institution to treat nuclear power in the same way as renewable energy.
Unlike renewables, nuclear power is currently included in the EU taxonomy as a “transitional” activity, which implies that a series of conditions must be met (see EUROPE 12860/1).
Furthermore, Foratom recommends that the Commission should also consider European private investments in nuclear projects outside the EU as compliant with the taxonomy and include all fuel supply operations to nuclear reactors in the taxonomy as ‘enabling’ activities.
The organisation also believes that the deadline for the commissioning of a final disposal facility for high-level radioactive waste should not be fixed, i.e. 2050 in the Commission’s proposal, but “should be linked to the date when (the facility) is needed”.
See Foratom’s recommendations: https://bit.ly/335XnHz (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)