Austria, alongside other environmental organisations, has criticised the decision of the European Commission to list nuclear and gas as sustainable activities.
The Austrian government has filed a lawsuit against the EU taxonomy
with the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for labelling nuclear and gas
as sustainable economic activities, it announced yesterday.
The country’s minister for climate protection, Leonore Gewessler,
believes the lawsuit may succeed. She added during a press conference
yesterday: “We will not stand by and see that the [European] Union and
the Commission allow themselves to be harnessed by the fossil and
nuclear lobby and thus endanger our future.”
According to the Austrian government, nuclear energy does not meet
the requirements of the taxonomy because green technologies must not
cause significant damage to the environment based on the so-called “do
no significant harm” principle, while accidents such as Chernobyl or
Fukushima prove the opposite, it said.
“Nuclear power is an outdated technology that cannot contribute to
climate protection,” Gewessler said, also pointing at the battle around
the nuclear power in Zaporizhia in Ukraine.
Moreover, there is the unresolved question of the disposal of
radioactive material, she added: “Nuclear power is too expensive and too
slow to help us fight the climate crisis. From our point of view it has
no future.”
For the Austrian government, natural gas damages the environment,
while delaying the energy transition in Europe through renewable
sources.
Including natural gas in the taxonomy causes lock-in effects in
fossil infrastructures that the regulation intended to prevent, leading
to higher costs, competitive disadvantages and further aggravation of
the climate crisis, it added.
The Commission has classified gas and nuclear as sustainable
activities under certain conditions in the Taxonomy Delegated Act. It
believes in the role that private investments can play in gas and
nuclear activities during the transition phase to a green economy....
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