To protect the climate, the EU wants to promote nuclear power soon. As early as January, Commission head Ursula von der Leyen (63) wants to classify nuclear power as “sustainable”. The EU Parliament and the Council could still prevent the project. However, according to media reports, the majority of those entitled to vote are apparently behind the plans to promote nuclear power in the future. France, Poland and the Czech Republic want to label nuclear power as “green” at all costs. Germany, Austria and Luxembourg are strictly against it. The Greens around Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck have now reiterated their opposition to the EU Commission’s classification of nuclear power as a “sustainable” form of energy generation.
“I don’t think nuclear power is the right technology,” said Economics and Climate Minister Robert Habeck to Deutschlandfunk on Monday. Environment Minister Steffi Lemke said in Brussels that she saw “no added value through nuclear power on the way to climate neutrality”. The classification is part of the new taxonomy planned by the Commission for sustainable forms of energy. This should actually be presented in December; According to EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, the presentation of the list of “green” investments has now been postponed to probably mid-January. “I hope that we can then present our final proposal in mid-January,” Breton told Welt am Sonntag. In addition to nuclear power, it is also about the classification of gas as a climate-friendly transition technology, which is also controversial.
One billion euros for the expansion of nuclear power
Germany wants to phase out nuclear power entirely in the coming year. The nuclear power France, on the other hand, generated around 70 percent of its electricity in nuclear power plants last year. In this context, President Macron wants to invest one billion euros in expanding nuclear power. Nuclear power makes the EU independent of fossil fuel suppliers and is also climate-friendly.
Habeck and Lemke again strictly rejected a renaissance of nuclear power in the EU. It will now be very important “that the Commission proposes the right thing,” said the Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate. “I can say that the German government’s stance that nuclear power is not one of the sustainable forms of energy continues,” emphasized Lemke before the EU environment ministers held consultations in Brussels. The taxonomy was not officially on the agenda there on Monday, but Lemke spoke of “intensive discussions on this at various levels” and with open results.
“I don’t see at all how classifying nuclear power as a sustainable form of energy can advance climate protection,” said the Federal Environment Minister. She also referred to the difficult search for a final repository for nuclear waste in Germany, which “shows how problematic the use of nuclear power is”. In addition, unlike in some cases shown, this involves a “high expenditure of resources”.