Greenpeace and other environmental organisations are taking legal action against the Europe-wide classification of natural gas and nuclear energy as "sustainable".

Greenpeace, BUND, WWF and others filed lawsuits against the EU Commission at the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg on Tuesday, according to the environmentalists. They accuse the board of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of "greenwashing".

Nuclear energy and gas have carried some kind of eco-label in the European Union since the beginning of 2022. The basis is the so-called 'Taxonomy Regulation for the Classification of Sustainable Energy Sources' of 2020, which the Commission expanded to include these two energy sources.

Specifically, this allows financial products such as funds to be advertised as "sustainable" even if they provide for investments in gas or nuclear power plants.

"Nuclear and gas cannot be sustainable," said Greenpeace Germany Executive Director Nina Treu. "Green money must not be misused for industries that led us into the nature and climate crisis in the first place. It must flow into renewable energies and the sustainable transformation towards a social-ecological economy."

According to Greenpeace, the French nuclear park operator Electricité de France (EDF), for example, wants to issue "green bonds" to investors.

The 'Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland' (BUND), together with the European office of WWF and other organisations, filed a separate complaint against the eco-label for natural gas with the EU court. "Alleged climate protection through fraudulent labelling is unacceptable," said BUND chairman Olaf Bandt.

Previously, the government of Austria had already filed a complaint against the sustainability label for nuclear and gas. The Brussels classification is considered a typical compromise between German and French interests: France in particular is a strong supporter of nuclear energy at the EU level; the German government, on the other hand, can live with the classification of natural gas because of its importance for German industry.

Luxembourg, Spain and Denmark also criticised the EU classification, while member states such as Poland and Bulgaria defended gas-fired power plants as an alternative to even more climate-damaging coal-fired power plants.