The debate over sustainable investment rules has highlighted the differences within the European Union on the ideal and/or possible energy mix in a carbon-constrained world where the EU wants to be a role model. It is time to reform the electricity system in Europe, writes Marc Deffrennes, from the weCare alliance of NGOs which favour using renewables and nuclear to limit carbon emissions.
The European Commission has presented the final version of the Complementary Delegated Act of the EU Taxonomy Regulation covering certain gas and nuclear activities. The final version contains only minor changes from the draft leaked at the end of December, with nuclear remaining a transitional energy technology.
Experts and activists have warned the European Commission that including natural gas and nuclear power in its plan for sustainable finance will lead to further greenwashing, split financial markets and undermine the bloc's climate objectives.
European nuclear trade body Foratom has welcomed the decision of the European Commission to include nuclear within the sustainable finance taxonomy under certain conditions. However, it has provided the Commission with some suggestions for improvement, based on analysis of the leaked draft Complementary Delegated Act.
Investment in nuclear power totalling around EUR500 billion (USD565 billion) by 2050 will be needed if the European Union’s goal of carbon neutrality is to be hit, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton has said in an interview with France’s Le Journal du Dimanche.