{"id":46036,"date":"2022-02-02T13:19:27","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T12:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/?p=46036"},"modified":"2022-02-02T13:19:29","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T12:19:29","slug":"taxonomy-nuclear-gas-attempted-robbery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/issues\/climate-energy\/46036\/taxonomy-nuclear-gas-attempted-robbery\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxonomy: inclusion of nuclear and gas is \u201cattempted robbery\u201d – Greenpeace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Brussels, 2 February 2022<\/strong> \u2013 The European Commission today officially presented a controversial plan to label fossil gas and nuclear energy as sustainable under the taxonomy regulation<\/a>. The plan<\/a> would incentivise potentially hundreds of billions of euro in private investments to flow away from clean energy like renewables and instead go to nuclear energy and fossil gas, accelerating the climate crisis.<\/p>\n\n

Apart from producing dangerous and unmanageable radioactive waste, nuclear reactors take so long to build that they cannot come online quickly enough to contribute to reaching EU climate targets by 2030, which scientists say is necessary to prevent the worst effects of the climate crisis. Gas is also the single most polluting fuel<\/a> in the EU, with soaring prices sparking a European energy crisis.<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace EU sustainable finance campaigner Ariadna Rodrigo <\/strong>said: \u201cI\u2019d like to report an attempted robbery, please. Someone is trying to take billions of euro away from renewables and sink them into technologies that either do nothing to fight the climate crisis, like nuclear, or which actively make the problem worse, like fossil gas. The suspect is at EU Commission HQ and has disguised herself as someone to be taken seriously on the climate and nature crisis.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

\u201cThis anti-science plan represents the biggest greenwashing exercise of all time. It makes a mockery of the EU\u2019s claims to global leadership on climate and the environment. The inclusion of gas and nuclear in the taxonomy is increasingly difficult to explain as anything other than a giveaway to two desperate industries with powerful political friends,\u201d<\/em> added Rodrigo.<\/p>\n\n

The Platform on Sustainable Finance<\/a>, a body of over 50 experts from business, academia and civil society, which advises the European Commission on its green agenda, said in its official feedback to the plan that the provisions on nuclear energy, especially radioactive waste, violate a key principle of the taxonomy, which aims to ensure that any technologies included \u201cdo no significant harm\u201d to the environment. The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change<\/a>, whose members represent more than \u20ac50 trillion in assets, has also said that the Commission\u2019s proposals on gas would \u201cchannel capital towards activities not compatible with the EU\u2019s commitment to climate neutrality by 2050.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Environmental lawyers at NGO Client Earth<\/a> have said that the inclusion in the taxonomy of fossil gas would be incompatible with several EU laws, including the 2021 EU Climate Law. Several governments and organisations<\/a> are reportedly planning legal challenges<\/a> to the inclusion of gas and nuclear in the taxonomy.<\/p>\n\n

Next steps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The Commission\u2019s plan is set to face an immediate backlash from MEPs<\/a>, who have been cut out of the process and denied the chance to scrutinise this controversial plan until now.<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace is calling on MEPs to vote this proposal down. A majority of the Parliament, or 353 MEPs, is required to reject it. <\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace is also calling on all financial institutions in the EU not to categorise nuclear and gas investments as environmentally sustainable, and to be transparent and science-based about their energy and climate investment decisions.<\/p>\n\n

Contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Ariadna Rodrigo \u2013 Greenpeace EU sustainable finance campaigner<\/strong>: +32 (0)479 99 69 22, arodrigo@greenpeace.org<\/a> <\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace EU press desk<\/strong>: +32 (0)2 274 1911, pressdesk.eu@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n

This press comment is also available on: www.greenpeace.eu<\/a><\/p>\n\n

For breaking news and comment on EU affairs: www.twitter.com\/GreenpeaceEU<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace. We do not accept donations from governments, the EU, businesses or political parties. Greenpeace has over three million supporters, and 26 independent national and regional organisations with offices in more than 55 countries.<\/p>\n\n

EU Transparency Register: 9832909575-41<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The plan would cause billions of euro to flow away from clean energy like renewables and instead go to nuclear energy and fossil gas, accelerating the climate crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":46039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,24,29,34],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-46036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-energy","tag-climatechange","tag-energytransition","tag-fossilfuels","tag-nuclear","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46036"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46040,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46036\/revisions\/46040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46036"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=46036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}