Page 11 - EurOil Week 46 2021

EurOil POLICY EurOil

Germany urges against classifying

nuclear as sustainable

GERMANY DISAGREEMENTS over which fuels the EU renewables, Portuguese minister Joao Pedro
should recognise as sustainable are heating up, Matos Fernandes said. Luxembourg’s minister
Germany and France with Germany and four other EU member states Carole Dieschbourg stressed that it was about
are at odds over nuclear on November 11 warning against the inclusion protecting the taxonomy’s integrity.
energy. of nuclear energy. The statement comes a day after French Pres-
In a joint statement issued by the environ- ident Emmanuel Macron announced that his
ment ministers of Germany, Denmark, Luxem- country would resume construction of nuclear
bourg, Austria and Portugal, the countries said reactors so that it overcomes its reliance on for-
that including nuclear power in the proposed EU eign energy supplies and meets its climate goals.
taxonomy would permanently damage the reg- While France will continue expanding its use of
ulation’s “integrity, credibility and therefore its renewables, building more nuclear reactors will
usefulness.” The EU’s taxonomy establishes cri- “guarantee France’s energy independence, guar-
teria for what economic practices can be consid- antee our country’s electricity supply and achieve
ered sustainable, helping steer financing towards our objectives, in particular carbon neutrality in
such projects. 2050.”
Germany’s caretaker environment minister, Nuclear power already dominates France’s
Svenja Schulze, said that “nuclear power is too energy mix, contributing more than 70% of its
risky, too expensive,” and that in any case, pro- power generation capacity. The government
jects would take too long to develop to make a previously said it would not build any more
notable impact to global warming. Instead, the reactors until the long-delayed EPR power plant
taxonomy should focus investments towards in France’s north-west had been finished. But
renewables. Macron said extra reactors were necessary for
Austria’s environment minister noted that the keeping power prices “reasonable.”
taxonomy served as a “compass” for investors, France’s second main source of electricity
and anything that amounts to “greenwashing” is natural gas, the price of which has soared
would undermine trust in it. Money invested in in recent months as a result of a global supply
nuclear power is money that does not go towards crunch. ™

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