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Greenpeace in Austria, together with seven other Greenpeace country offices, today filed a lawsuit against the EU Commission. The environmental protection organization is complaining to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg that climate-damaging gas-fired power plants and risky nuclear power plants can be declared sustainable investments. “Nuclear and gas cannot be sustainable. At the urging of the industry lobby, the EU Commission wants to sell a decades-old problem as a solution, but Greenpeace is taking the matter to court,” says Lisa Panhuber, spokeswoman for Greenpeace in Austria. “Putting money into industries that led us to the natural and climate crisis in the first place is a disaster. All available funds must flow into renewable energies, renovations, new mobility concepts and a decelerated circular economy in a socially and environmentally compatible manner.”
The EU taxonomy is intended to enable investors to better classify sustainable financial products in order to direct funds into sustainable, climate-friendly sectors. However, under pressure from the gas and nuclear lobby, the EU Commission has decided that since the beginning of 2023 certain gas and nuclear power plants will also be considered green. This contradicts both the EU's legally binding target of phasing out fossil fuels and the Paris climate targets. In addition, it is to be expected that the inclusion of gas in the taxonomy will mean that the energy system will remain dependent on fossil fuels for a longer period of time (lock-in effect) and will hinder the expansion of renewable energies.
Greenpeace criticizes that the inclusion of gas and nuclear in the taxonomy gives fossil gas and nuclear power plants access to funds that would otherwise flow into renewable energies. For example, shortly after adding nuclear power to the EU taxonomy in July 2022, French power producer Electricité de France announced that it would finance the maintenance of its old and poorly maintained nuclear reactors by issuing green bonds aligned with the taxonomy . “By including gas and nuclear in the taxonomy, the EU Commission is sending a fatal signal to the European financial sector and undermining its own climate goals. We call on the EU Commission to completely repeal the Delegated Act and to stop the greenwashing of fossil gas and nuclear power immediately," says Lisa Panhuber, spokeswoman for Greenpeace Austria.
Photo / Video: Annette Stolz.
