Five EU countries form anti-nuclear alliance at COP26
In face of a French-led push to revive nuclear power in Europe, a group of five EU countries led by Germany have banded together to urge the European Commission to keep nuclear out of the EU’s green finance taxonomy.
“Nuclear power is incompatible with the EU Taxonomy Regulation’s ‘do no significant harm’ principle“, says the joint declaration for a nuclear-free EU taxonomy signed by Austria, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal.
“We have plenty of evidence of how dangerous nuclear power can be,” said Leonore Gewessler, Austrian minister for energy, at a side-event at COP26 in Glasgow on 11 November.
The European Commission is expected to table a proposal in the coming weeks that will clarify the status of nuclear and gas under the EU’s green finance taxonomy, a rulebook that provides guidance to investors by spelling out conditions under which technologies can be considered sustainable.
Austria and Luxembourg are the fiercest opponents of nuclear power in Europe, and have resisted the inclusion of nuclear power in the taxonomy since the beginning, an EU diplomat told EURACTIV.
The two countries appear to have used the Glasgow UN climate summit to bring Germany, Portugal and Denmark on their side.
“We recognise the sovereign right of member states to decide for or against nuclear power as part of their national energy systems,” reads the joint declaration by the five EU countries.
