Luxembourg has decided to oppose the EU Commission’s proposal of including nuclear energy and natural gas in the classification system for sustainable economic activities. Brussels hopes to include nuclear power in its label for green investments, a decision that is strongly defended by Paris.
However, the Luxembourgish government does not consider nuclear and gas to be renewable energies. The real transition to climate neutrality must disregard fossil fuels as well as nuclear energy, a costly and highly dangerous technology not only for citizens, but also for the environment and natural resources, the statement explains.
Luxembourg will signal its opposition to the EU Commission within the deadline. If the text is adopted as it stands in January, Luxembourg will continue to oppose the Commission’s decision in the Council. Luxembourg is also considering legal action against the decision should it be adopted.
The Minister for the Environment, Carole Dieschbourg, explains that it is an issue of marking unsustainable technologies as sustainable, thus allowing fossil and nuclear energy players to access the investments planned for the green transition.
To include nuclear and natural gas in the taxonomy of sustainable finance would seriously undermine its credibility, she continues. This is why Luxembourg will do everything in its power to block this decision and avoid greenwashing.
Claude Turmes, Minister for Energy, similarly argues that nuclear power plants are not sustainable, take decades to build, are dangerous and much more expensive than renewable energy. They therefore are not a realistic way to fight climate change.
France, which intends to relaunch the construction of nuclear reactors, is defending the inclusion of this energy in this label, which should make it possible to obtain more advantageous financing.
The German Environment Minister, Steffi Lemke, is on the same wavelength as her Luxembourg counterparts. She also described the plan to include nuclear and gas as a mistake.
