With the so-called taxonomy, the EU Commission wants to determine which financial investments should be considered climate-friendly in the future, in order to channel more money towards sustainable technologies and companies. This is intended to make a significant contribution to climate neutrality in Europe by 2050. According to EU calculations, this will require 350 billion euros in private investment every year.
Austria has announced that it will take legal action before the European Court of Justice (CJ) if the “green” nuclear energy taxonomy comes into force. “The outcome of the vote in both committees is very pleasing,” Gewessler said in a statement to the APA. “Nuclear energy and gas have no place in the taxonomy. Now the same decision is needed in the plenary of the European Parliament, so the delegated act cannot enter into force.”
The planned entry into force of the new rules could still be avoided if 20 of the 27 EU states with at least 65% of the total EU population or an absolute majority in the European Parliament vote against them. It is considered unlikely that member states still oppose this. EU representatives will make a final decision in July. If they vote against it, the EU Commission would have to withdraw or amend its proposal.
The EU parliamentary committees have now rejected the EU green label for nuclear energy and gas on the basis of an objection that has been supported by all relevant Austrian MEPs. It states that the EU Commission’s plans are not compatible with the basic regulation and therefore with the basic principles of the taxonomy, because nuclear energy and gas are not sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Austrian MEPs and environmental organizations welcomed the result. “There is no such thing as ‘green’ nuclear power and therefore investments in nuclear power should not be given a green thumb,” ÖVP MPs Othmar Karas and Alexander Bernhuber said in advance, according to the broadcast. SPÖ-UE leaders Evelyn Regner and Günther Sidl said: “If nuclear energy and gas remain anchored in the ‘taxonomy regulation’, we will be violating the six basic principles of ‘taxonomy’, such as climate protection.”
According to Liberal MEP Roman Haider, the Commission’s proposal “is basically a bane of the nuclear lobby and will lead to a renaissance of nuclear energy at EU level”. EU green leader Thomas Waitz sees the result of the vote as “a clear signal” to Brussels authorities and calls for “investments in the massive expansion of renewable energy”. NEOS MP Claudia Gamon was also pleased: “There is an urgent need for a credible benchmark for the financial world in order to close the funding gap for the fight against climate change.”
“With this vote today, MEPs have shown that they do not want to further fuel the climate and natural crisis and that they do not want to continue to feed Putin’s war machine with money. This is a success!” voice of Greenpeace. for sustainable financing in the EU. WWF expert Jakob Mayr described the result as an “important stage win. This could still prevent the greenwashing of nuclear power and natural gas in the last few meters”. The NGO atostopp_oberoesterreich also praised the result.