Out with Science .. in with Lobbyists

On July 22nd 2021, Reclaim Finance published a report :

Fossil gas and nuclear energy are not “sustainable”

To be considered “sustainable” in the taxonomy, an activity should significantly contribute to at least one out of six environmental objectives set by the legislation without significantly harming another objective, aka the “do no significant harm” (DNSH) principle.

Fossil gas actively harms some of these objectives

let alone contributes to them. Indeed, gas could emit more greenhouse gas (GHG) than coal and is responsible for massive methane leaks. Furthermore, global gas production, infrastructure and use ought to be drastically reduced to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

On the other side, nuclear energy poses significant threats to various environmental objectives

(notably water use, pollution prevention, healthy ecosystems). Apart from incident risks, the issue of nuclear waste stockage is a major obstacle to nuclear inclusion in the taxonomy. Moreover, other sources of “low carbon” energy are easily available, faster to deploy and often much cheaper.

The NGO calls on the Commission, EU Parliament and Member states to exclude gas and nuclear power. While the EU is defining its environmental agenda for the decades to come, it also argues for fossil fuel lobbyists to be banned from EU institutions.

Report by Reclaim Finance