EurOil: Germany hits back against nuclear

Disagreements over which fuels the EU should recognise as sustainable are heating up, with Germany and four other member states on November 11 warning against the inclusion of nuclear energy.

In a joint statement issued by the environment ministers of Germany, Denmark, Luxembourg, Austria and Portugal, the countries said that including nuclear power in the proposed EU taxonomy would permanently damage the regulation’s “integrity, credibility and therefore its usefulness.” The EU’s taxonomy establishes criteria for what economic practices can be considered sustainable, helping to steer financing towards such projects.

Germany’s caretaker environment minister Svenja Schulze said that “nuclear power is too risky, too expensive,” and that in any case, projects would take too long to develop to make a notable impact to global warming. Instead, the taxonomy should focus investments towards renewables.

Austria’s environment minister noted that the taxonomy served as a “compass” for investors, and anything that amounts to “greenwashing” would undermine trust in it. Money invested in nuclear power is money that does not go towards renewables, Portuguese minister Joao Pedro Matos Fernandes said. Luxembourg’s minister Carole Dieschbourg stressed that it was about protecting the taxonomy’s integrity.

The statement comes a day after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country would resume construction of nuclear reactors so that it overcomes its reliance on foreign energy supplies and meets its climate goals. While France will continue expanding its use of renewables, building more nuclear reactors will “guarantee France’s energy independence, guarantee our country’s electricity supply and achieve our objectives, in particular carbon neutrality in 2050.”

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