Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images The European Union voted on Wednesday to keep certain specific uses of natural gas and nuclear power in the classification of sustainable energy sources. Europe’s classification is the classification system for defining “environmentally sustainable economic activities” for investors, policy makers and companies. This official EU opinion matters because it affects project funding as the region charts its course to tackle climate change. In theory, the classification “aims to stimulate green investment and prevent greenwashing”, according to the EU parliament. The vote on natural gas and nuclear energy follows a vote in February that amounted to a referendum on what was a particularly controversial part of the decision. Natural gas emits 58.5% as much carbon dioxide as coal, according to the US Energy Information Association. Nuclear power produces no emissions, although it has been criticized for the problem of storing radioactive waste. While the region voted to keep nuclear and natural gas in the green classification, it did not give these energy sources a free pass to be included in every situation. In general, the use of natural gas to generate electricity or to heat or cool several homes at the same time will be considered sustainable, while other uses may be excluded. They must be below certain emission limits and are only approved until 2030 or 2035, depending on the situation. New nuclear plants using the most advanced technologies and modifications to extend the life of existing plants may be approved by 2040 or 2045. The EU is still required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by the end of the decade and become climate neutral by 2050 under European climate legislation. But Wednesday’s vote shows that at the same time the EU wants to encourage private investment in natural gas and nuclear as the region makes the transition from fossil fuels, particularly coal, to clean energy. Members of KoalaKollektiv and Greenpeace attend a protest against greenwashing with green “smoke” and paint next to the Euro Sculpture at Willi-Brandt-Platz in the financial district of Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, January 11, 2022. The EU plans The to allow some natural gas and nuclear power projects to be classified as sustainable investments under the proposed classification system, known as classification, is under fire from Green lawmakers and climate groups. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Mixed reactions
There was a flurry of objections to the decision. Some observers have argued that continued use of natural gas means continued dependence on Russian energy. “I am shocked. Russia’s war against Ukraine is a war paid for by climate-warming fossil fuels and the European Parliament has just voted to boost Russian fossil gas funding by billions,” Svitlana Krakowska, a Ukrainian scientist at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said in a statement released by the European Climate Foundation, an advocacy charity that fights climate change. Others say that including natural gas in the classification undermines its goal of preventing greenwashing. “With natural gas in the Classification, the European Union has missed its chance to set a gold standard for sustainable financing. Instead, it has set a dangerous precedent. Politics and vested interests have won out over science,” said Laurence Tubiana, CEO Advisor to the European Climate Foundation, in a statement. “The EU Taxonomy now falls short of its original objective, which was to prevent greenwashing in the financial system. Investors, companies and consumers will now look elsewhere for the scientific clarity and credibility they need,” Tubiana said. But some observers were encouraged by the vote and see it as a sign that European government leaders are facing the harsh reality that it will take time and many steps to transform energy infrastructure, according to David Blackmon, an analyst and public policy consultant associated with the energy. based in Texas. The vote “reflects a growing recognition that the ongoing ‘energy transition’ will be much more complex and harder to achieve than blanket, simplistic narratives suggest,” Blackmon told CNBC. “The fact that a legislature as environmentally focused as the European Parliament now recognizes the role that both natural gas and nuclear power have to play in ensuring the continent’s energy security and stability is a welcome change of perspective that should serve as an example of imitation by the Biden administration.” And if using natural gas helps the ultimate goal of eliminating carbon, then it’s a justifiable decision, some say. “Our main and most urgent priority is to phase out coal as soon as possible in Europe. To do this, natural gas can play a role as a ‘transition activity’ in replacing coal – and only by the replacement of coal – because they want to pursue decarbonisation,” Pascal Canfin, the chairman of the parliament’s environment committee, wrote in a LinkedIn post in February after the initial vote. “There is a coalition contract in Germany, the parties have agreed to accelerate the phase-out of coal from 2038 to 2030. This means building more renewables, obviously, but also more gas,” Canfin wrote. “And this is exactly the specific case where gas can make a positive contribution to the energy transition: when it replaces coal in electricity generation. Even the German Greens support this trajectory.”
