For EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, nuclear power is one of the energy sources that should be used more in Europe. At the turn of 2021/2022, this was reflected in a supplementary delegated act submitted by her Commission to the Taxonomy Regulation for investments in “green energy sources”, which also classifies nuclear power and natural gas as “environmentally sustainable”. Two years ago, Austria filed an action for annulment with the General Court of the European Union (General Court), which will hear the case on Monday and Tuesday.
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Austria argues that the EU Commission may not independently make such far-reaching and politically sensitive decisions to classify nuclear power as sustainable. The delegated act was adopted by the EU Commission on March 9, 2022 without an impact assessment or public consultation and published in the Official Journal of the EU on July 15, 2022, the Austrian government explains. It has been in force since January 1, 2023.
In January 2022, lawyer Götz Reichert, Head of the Department for European Energy Law at the Center for European Policy, followed this line of argument. He said that the EU Commission’s approach was unlikely to stand up before the European Court of Justice, as the European Treaty prohibits the regulation of “essential aspects” by means of a delegated act.
“Credibility of the taxonomy is undermined”
Austria also argues that the taxonomy was created to clearly define the term “sustainable” and provide guidance for investors. Instead, the credibility of the classification scheme is being undermined. Nuclear power does not meet the requirements of the taxonomy regulation according to a central criterion: “According to the principle of “do no significant harm”, green economic activities must not cause significant environmental damage.” Austria refers to reactor accidents such as Chernobyl or Fukushima. Classifying natural gas as sustainable creates “harmful parallel structures for investments and senselessly delays the necessary energy transition in Europe”.
Greenpeace has filed its own lawsuit against the EU Commission; this has been suspended pending the outcome of the current proceedings. The environmental organization has now submitted a report. It states that it will take 10 to 19 years to put a new nuclear power plant into operation. “If the EU taxonomy also directs the planned investments into nuclear power, this money will not be available for solar and wind power plants that can be implemented much more quickly. Climate-damaging coal and gas-fired power plants would run for years longer.”
In spring 2023, a “nuclear alliance” of 16 European countries came together. It assumes that nuclear power could supply up to 150 GW of electricity in the EU by 2050 through the construction of up to 45 new conventional reactors and the development of SMRs (also known as mini-nuclear power plants). Last week, the Alliance called for nuclear power to be included in existing and future EU regulations.
(anw)
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This article was originally published in
German.
It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.
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Publish date : 2024-10-21 04:11:00
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The post EGC hears “Green label for nuclear power”: “Sustainability” in court first appeared on Love Europe.
Author : love-europe
Publish date : 2024-10-22 22:04:24
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