Belgium to shut down its nuclear reactors by 2025
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The European Commission’s proposal prompted sharp criticism from Germany, with its environment minister calling the plan “absolutely wrong”. The Commission argues that natural gas and nuclear power is a key component in helping lower-income countries transition to cleaner power like solar and offshore wind energy. The Commission’s proposal says: “It is necessary to recognise that the fossil gas and nuclear energy sectors can contribute to the decarbonisation of the Union’s economy,”
The Commission argues that natural gas and nuclear power is a key component in helping lower-income countries transition to cleaner power like solar and offshore wind energy.
The EU taxonomy for sustainable activities is a system of classification that is established to determine which investments are environmentally sustainable.
This system was created in the wake of the European Green Deal in July 2020 and was made to help prevent “greenwashing” among different investments.
According to Reuters, the draft of the proposal would label nuclear power plant investments as green if the project has a plan, funds and a site to safely dispose of radioactive waste.
To be considered green, new nuclear plants must acquire construction permits before 2045.
The Commission would also place restrictions on gas plants, including keeping a limit of how much carbon dioxide is released per kilowatt-hour of energy produced.
For a while, the decision on including nuclear to this list has been a contentious one, with a number of European countries vehemently opposing the classification of nuclear as “green”.
France is leading a group of twelve countries that support the inclusion of nuclear energy as a part of a green taxonomy.
France relies heavily on nuclear energy, as it generates 70 percent of its electricity. However, it aims to reduce this by half over the next 15 years.
France has also pledged to reduce its dependency on nuclear power by shutting down 12 nuclear reactors by 2035.
On the other side, five EU countries staunchly oppose these possible decisions.
Austria even went as far as threatening to take the Commission to the EU Court of Justice if they went ahead with the decision.
Meanwhile, Germany, which is heavily reliant on imported gas, particularly from Russia, has been pushing for gas to be considered a green investment as it is often a transition energy source between coal and other renewable energy sources.
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Germany criticised the inclusion of nuclear energy, with Environment Minister Steffi Lemke saying: ”I think it is absolutely wrong that the European Commission intends to include nuclear power in the EU taxonomy for sustainable economic activities.”
She also added that nuclear energy could lead to environmental disasters and large amounts of nuclear waste.
Economy and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck accused the plan of “greenwashing”, saying it “waters down the good label for sustainability.”
This comes as German environmentalists have slammed Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz over Germany’s reliance on imported gas and its push for the inclusion of gas in the EU taxonomy.
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