Green nuclear power?
EU Commission wants to classify nuclear energy as climate-friendly – critical reactions from Germany
Steam rises from the cooling towers of the Grohnde nuclear power plant. After around 36 years, the nuclear power plant in the Weser Uplands near Hameln finally went offline on December 31, 2021.
© Julian Stratenschulte / Picture Alliance
The EU Commission wants to classify energy generation from natural gas and nuclear plants as climate-friendly. The first critical reactions were promptly received from politics and environmental aid.
Green energy from the reactor? According to a draft regulation by the EU Commission, which the AFP news agency received on Saturday, energy from natural gas and nuclear power plants should be considered sustainable. According to this, permits issued for new nuclear power plants by 2045 should come under the so-called taxonomy ordinance and construction should be subsidized accordingly. For new gas infrastructure, this should apply under certain conditions until 2030.
The taxonomy is a kind of classification of sustainable economic activities and is equivalent to a classification as worthy of funding and a recommendation to investors. The EU Commission had already presented the corresponding legal act in April. At the time, however, the authority left out the delicate question of assessing gas and nuclear energy. We should await further expert reports and evaluations.
“It must be recognized that the fossil gas and nuclear energy sectors can contribute to the decarbonisation of the Union’s economy,” the Brussels draft paper now reads. The Commission has not yet officially presented the proposal. According to information from Brussels and Berlin circles, the draft was sent to the governments of the 27 member states on New Year’s Eve shortly before midnight for a consultation process.
France is pushing for nuclear energy to be classified as “green”
According to the document, the “construction and safe operation of new nuclear power plants to generate electricity or heat, including hydrogen, using the best available technologies” should be considered taxonomy-compliant, i.e. sustainable and climate-friendly. Further requirements are provided for the long-term handling of radioactive waste, for example.
France in particular is urgently pushing for nuclear power to be classified as sustainable. Poland and other eastern countries are also urging the EU Commission to recognize nuclear power as climate-friendly. On the other hand, only a minority of the EU countries – Germany, Austria and Luxembourg – have so far taken a decision.
According to the draft, stricter rules are provided for the eligibility of new gas systems. For example, the new systems in question must always replace an old system that uses fossil fuels. It should also be demonstrated that the planned energy production could not also be achieved with a renewable energy source.
The previous federal government had insisted on the importance of natural gas as a transition technology towards climate neutrality. New Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD continues to adhere to this. However, criticism comes from the ranks of the green coalition partner.
The consultation process that has now begun with the EU member states is expected to take around two weeks. In mid-January, the Commission will then present the final proposal, which may differ from the draft that has now become known. Subsequently, the Council of Member States and the EU Parliament each have a right of veto.
Green politicians and environmental aid criticize the move
There is already resistance in the EU Parliament: “The proposal by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is a step backwards,” criticized the Greens MP Rasmus Andresen. “Atom and fossil gas are not sustainable.”
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck and Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, both from the Greens, have also expressed their rejection of the EU Commission’s plan. “The EU Commission’s proposals dilute the good label for sustainability,” Habeck told the German Press Agency in Berlin on Saturday. “From our point of view, this amendment to the taxonomy rules would not have been necessary. We do not see any approval of the new proposals of the EU Commission,” said the Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. Lemke told the newspapers of the Funke media group: “I think it is absolutely wrong that the European Commission intends to include nuclear power in the EU taxonomy for sustainable economic activities”. A form of energy that could lead to “devastating environmental disasters” and leave behind large amounts of dangerous, highly radioactive waste “cannot be sustainable”.
The German Environmental Aid (DUH) also reacts indignantly to the advance. This would “enable environmentally harmful investments under a green guise,” warned the organization on Saturday. The DUH also attacked Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) because of the draft. He apparently “advocated the inclusion of fossil gas in the taxonomy and in return supported the French desire to include dangerous nuclear power”. DUH federal manager Sascha Müller-Kraenner accused Scholz of risking “the reputation of the federal government in terms of climate policy”. In turn, he accused the EU Commission of undermining “its own climate targets and the Green Deal as a whole” with the draft.