The EU's new taxonomy regulation pushes NGOs over the edge by treating gas and nuclear power as sustainable | François Walschaerts/AFP via Getty Images
In a political compromise that even the European Commission agreed was messy, both gas and nuclear will be treated as sustainable investments under new rules published Wednesday.
"Today’s delegated act may be imperfect, but it is a real solution," Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness said at a press conference. "It moves us further toward our ultimate goal of carbon neutrality."
The delegated act defines technologies that count as being green under the EU's Taxonomy Regulation. The aim is to help funnel the vast amounts of cash needed to hit the EU's climate goals — cutting emissions by 55 percent by the end of the decade and becoming climate neutral by mid-century. The Commission estimates some €520 billion will need to be poured into the green transition — with most of that expected to come from private capital.
Scientists and climate activists were already livid over a December draft of the file, which they warned would greenwash environmentally harmful investments and undermine the credibility of the EU's entire green finance framework.
But Wednesday's final version is even laxer on the controversial energy technologies, pushing NGOs over the edge — and putting Brussels on the defensive.
“I’d like to report an attempted robbery, please. Someone is trying to take billions of euros 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," Greenpeace EU Sustainable Finance Campaigner Ariadna Rodrigo said immediately after publication.
"The suspect is at EU Commission HQ and has disguised herself as someone to be taken seriously on the climate and nature crisis.”
But McGuinness denied that the delegated amounted to greenwashing, stressing that the definition is only temporary.
"There is no 'get out of jail' here for nuclear or gas," she insisted. "We are saying very clearly these are instruments in the transition to allow us to get to where we need to be, which is more renewables." Politico - link - America Hernandez - link - more like this - link
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