The European Commission on Wednesday set a four-month legal clock ticking by presenting its widely discussed plans to recognise natural gas and nuclear power as sustainable fuels during the coming decades. Luxembourg and Austria fiercely oppose the plan and are set for legal action to have them annulled.
In its taxonomy plans the European Union defines which economic activities are sustainable. The financial sector then can use these definitions as a signpost for investments and loans. The plans announced today refer specifically to natural gas and nuclear energy.
Aware of the controversial nature of the plan, European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness, in charge of financial services, underlined that the proposed definitions are voluntary, that member states are free to choose their own energy mix, and that it does not prohibit investments in specific sectors.
Signpost for investors
“An important point to remember is that the taxonomy remains a voluntary tool,” McGuinness said. “It is a signpost towards the private investment market, on our road towards sustainability.”
Since last month, EU investments and financial services are already subject to the taxonomy under the first delegated act. This covers some 170 economic activities that represent 40 percent of listed companies in the EU and that collectively are responsible for nearly 80 percent of direct greenhouse gas emissions in Europe.
That first act was essentially regarded as low-hanging fruit. The more difficult issues - gas and nuclear as fuels to move away from coal and oil - are considered in the complementary delegated act announced today. This act also foresees a total phase out of natural gas by the year 2053, said McGuinness.
Vote not unanimous
The outcome of the vote in the weekly Commission meeting was not unanimous. McGuinness said the vote showed “overwhelming support” for the proposal.
Luxembourg and Austria are the two countries in the 27-member union that have repeatedly spoken out against the plans, which were first announced to the EU’s member states via email on New Year’s Eve. The two countries reacted again within hours after the Commission officially tabled its proposal.
Luxembourg’s Energy Minister Claude Turmes, who also is a former member of the European Parliament for the Green Party, said on Twitter that Luxembourg “strongly reaffirms its opposition.”
“Wrong decision”
In Vienna, Austria’s Climate Protection Minister Leonore Gewessler said the EU’s proposal is “the wrong decision”. Nuclear energy is not able to contribute to the reduction in carbon emissions because the technology is “outdated, too slow to develop and too expensive,” she said.
Climate activists now call on the European Parliament to reject the proposal. “Failing to take these legal obligations into account puts the Commission at serious risk of legal challenge,” said Marta Toporek, lawyer at environmental law charity ClientEarth. “We now urge the European Parliament to prevent a disaster in the making and veto the Commission’s proposal.”
Now that the next steps for the EU taxonomy have been presented, the EU’s member states and the European Parliament have four months to amend the proposal. If they don’t do so by 31 May, then this period can be extended by another two months.