Nuclear Power isn’t Green Enough for Germany
Disagreement on the inclusion of nuclear power in the EU’s upcoming green finance taxonomy has revived long-standing divisions between France and Germany over the energy transition. EURACTIV France reports.
Franco-German relations have already been strained by French President Emmanuel Macron’s radical comments on NATO’s “brain death,” which attracted strong rebukes in Berlin.
Now, the European Commission’s proposed taxonomy for sustainable finance has emerged as a new bone of contention.
Tabled in 2018, the EU taxonomy aims to determine which economic activities can benefit from a sustainable finance label at European level. The objective is to give clear indications to investors so they can redirect their financing towards environmentally-friendly sectors.
Six pre-defined environmental objectives must be met in order to obtain the label. If any technology seriously undermines one of those goals, it is automatically disqualified.
It is because of this double level of control that nuclear energy failed to win the green label in the European Parliament, until the Council representing EU member states voted to reinstate it in September.
Although nuclear energy largely meets the low-carbon emissions objective, “it was not possible to include nuclear power because there is no scientific evidence for waste treatment. This means that the sector does not meet both requirements,” explained Jochen Krimphoff, WWF’s deputy director for green finance.
Since the beginning of the negotiations on the EU’s taxonomy, France has been pushing to reintroduce nuclear power, much to Germany’s dismay.
“France will advocate that nuclear energy should be part of this eco-label,” said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire at the conference to replenish the Green Fund at the end of October.
“We cannot succeed in the ecological transition, and we cannot achieve our goal in terms of combating global warming without nuclear energy,” the French minister said.
France’s position on nuclear, supported by the Czech Republic and a handful of Eastern European member states, has considerably strained relations with Germany, which is fiercely opposed to giving nuclear energy the green label.
“Nuclear energy is nor safe and sustainable nor cost-effective,” said German State Secretary for Energy, Andreas Feicht, during a September meeting of EU energy ministers. “So we reject the idea of EU money to extend the life of nuclear power stations,” he said.
Other European countries such as Luxembourg, Austria, Italy and Malta are also opposed to nuclear power’s recognition under the scheme.
“France wants to impose nuclear power in the taxonomy, which is upsetting the talks on the subject at the risk of causing them to fail. Why is France seeking to push forward such issues, which are toxic for European cooperation? ” wondered Pierre Cannet, an expert on climate and energy issues at WWF France.
The move is all the more surprising given France’s rather progressive positions on the taxonomy. For example, Paris has, like the Commission and Parliament, been calling for the taxonomy to enter into force as early as 2020, while the Council has advocated for implementation in 2023.
For its part, Germany would not be opposed to labeling gas as green. This could be at the risk of a deal that would see both gas and nuclear power re-entering the scheme.
Read more at www.euractiv.com
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Andy Rowlands
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I have long been an advocate of nuclear power if you want cheap, reliable energy production. Despite what you hear in the media and biased publications, nuclear power is the safest industry in the world.
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Boris Badenov
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I have a friend to works on nukes, let’s just say that he won’t go near a nuke in certain countries, they don’t have the standards the western world has.
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Andy Rowlands
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In some countries yes I would agree with you, I was meaning the industry as a whole worldwide.
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Tom O
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This is fascinating to me. I am assuming there is more than one WWF besides the world wildlife federation to start with, but exactly WHAT is “an expert on climate and energy issues?” As best I can figure, there isn’t even as “expert” on climate, much less one also expert in energy issues.
But the bottom line is that if the EU continues to pursue its “green bogus issues,” all the Muslims that have waked in through their open borders will have to leave if they want a future since the EU is doing its best to insure that Europe will fail as an economic and innovative powerhouse. Too bad, really, because Europe and its off shoot nations probably have accounted for at least 80% of the world’s technological innovation through the centuries, and now, like the US, is being turned into an intellectual and moral backwater.
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T. C. Clark
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Well, Germany made two giant mistakes last century and now makes one for this century.
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tom0mason
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““Nuclear energy is nor safe and sustainable nor cost-effective,” said German State Secretary for Energy, Andreas Feicht, during a September meeting of EU energy ministers. “So we reject the idea of EU money to extend the life of nuclear power stations,” he said. “
But windfarms, solar farms, or (in most cases) even geopower generation are not cost-effective, sustainable, safe, or reliable either, so lets remove them from the Green labeling too.
The new EU fascists — same as the old EU fascists.
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Graeme Mochrie
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Russia has just produced a floating nuclear reactor that can be towed into position and hooked up to provide enough energy to power a small town. They intend to me produce such floating reactors and sell them extensively to Africa and other power hungry areas of the world. Green or not nuclear, is going to be important. Who does it is the question.
I just read a report about advances in blue power technology. A new membrane will triple the output of this technology, making it highly competative. All you need is fresh water, sea water and electrodes and you will have a highly competative power source that is 100% clean. Combined with a bit of other technology e.g. solar powered desalination and power will be cheap and plentiful.
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