As debates on the inclusion of fossil gas and nuclear power in the European Union’s taxonomy continue in the European Parliament ahead of a first vote between 14 and 16 June (see EUROPE 12957/20), the war in Ukraine may be increasing the number of MEPs opposed to the European Commission’s proposed delegated act.
Presented by the European Commission on 2 February (see EUROPE 12882/1), the draft delegated act provides for the inclusion of nuclear and gas projects for electricity generation in the taxonomy as ‘transitional’ activities.
In addition to criticism that the draft text is not based on scientific criteria and risks weakening the taxonomy - a classification system to determine whether an economic activity is considered environmentally sustainable in order to guide private investment (see EUROPE 12883/12) - many voices now deplore the inconsistency of this delegated act with the EU’s objective of moving away from Russian gas.
This is true for Sébastien Godinot, member of the NGO WWF and the ‘Platform on Sustainable Finance’, a stakeholder group advising the Commission on taxonomy.
In a debate with members of the Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) on Monday 30 May, he said the draft delegated act “risks diverting billions of investments into gas and nuclear at the expense of renewables and energy efficiency”, at a time when the EU is seeking to strengthen both of these areas to move away from Russian fossil fuels.
In a note published the same day, the think tank E3G considers that the Commission’s proposal “runs counter to the EU’s policy shift” and “fails to consider the severe energy security and investment risks associated with the EU’s exposure and over-reliance on gas and nuclear material imports”.
In a letter from Tuesday 15 March calling on the Commission to withdraw its draft delegated act, around 100 MEPs also stressed that “maintaining the Delegated Act (...) will only further increase the EU’s dependence on Russian gas imports” (see EUROPE 12912/20).
See E3G’s note: https://aeur.eu/f/1v6 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)