Monday, January 03, 2022
Nuclear power soon green?
Lemke wants to react quickly to EU plans
A draft by the EU Commission provides for electricity from nuclear sources to be classified as “sustainable”. Environment Minister Lemke criticizes the idea. She announced a quick response from the federal government on the subject.
Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke has announced a quick response from the federal government to the highly controversial EU proposal to classify nuclear power as environmentally friendly. “We will now quickly examine the EU proposal and coordinate our efforts in the federal government,” said Lemke of the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post”. Austria had previously threatened a lawsuit against the EU plans.
Lemke said that nuclear power is “anything but sustainable, it is a risk technology”. Apart from that, nuclear energy “does not pay off in purely economic terms after more than six decades and now obviously needs injections of money under the wrong label”. The EU Commission creates the great danger of blocking and damaging really sustainable investments in the energy sector “in favor of dangerous nuclear power.”
The CSU regional group warned the federal government against working towards a veto against the plans. The head of the CSU MPs in the Bundestag, Alexander Dobrindt, told the newspaper “Die Welt” that a European energy mix must be able to differentiate itself from energy generation in Germany: “The traffic light parties have to learn that now.”
Dobrindt emphasized: “Out of nuclear energy, out of coal, out of gas, that can certainly not work for all EU countries at the same time and, incidentally, not for Germany as an energy-intensive country that also needs electricity imports.”
The Deputy Chief of the FDP parliamentary group, Lukas Köhler, also opposed attempting to block the Brussels plans: “From our point of view there will be no qualified majority against the Commission’s proposal on nuclear power, so it is right to continue working on this proposal” he told the “world”.
On New Year’s Eve, the EU Commission sent its draft regulation on the so-called taxonomy to the governments of the 27 EU member states. The taxonomy is a kind of classification of sustainable economic activities and is equivalent to a classification as worthy of funding and a recommendation to investors.
The Commission proposes that permits issued for new nuclear power plants by 2045 can be subject to the taxonomy regulation. Work on existing reactors to extend their operating life, which has been approved until 2040, is also included. The Brussels authority also suggests classifying natural gas as climate-friendly. For new gas infrastructure, projects approved for the green label are to be considered by 2030.
The proposals were heavily criticized by government representatives in Berlin as well as in Vienna. The consultation process that has now begun with the member states on the taxonomy recommendation is expected to take around two weeks. In mid-January, the Commission will then present the final proposal, which the Council of Member States and the EU Parliament can both veto.
In order to hold up the Commission’s plans, however, a qualified majority of 20 of the 27 member states, which also represent 65 percent of the EU population, would be needed in the Council. This is currently not in sight. Even in the EU Parliament, where a simple majority would be enough for a veto, this has not yet emerged.