EU committees vote to oppose proposal for green label on nuclear, gas

Two major European Parliament committees on Tuesday have objected to a proposal that would allow the labelling of certain gas and nuclear energy activities as environmentally sustainable.

The plan was turned down through a 76:62 vote favouring a resolution to block the European Commission’s (EC) proposal, the European Parliament announced. A final vote on the rules, which were put forward in March, will be cast during the Parliament’s plenary session in early July.

The complementary act to the existing taxonomy, the classification system defining what is a sustainable economic activity, has divided member states and lawmakers over whether natural gas and nuclear energy should be considered green investments. The EC proposal seeks to give the sustainable investment status to gas and nuclear projects that obtain construction permits by 2035 and 2045, respectively.

According to the Parliament’s environment and economic committees, the two technologies cannot be considered environmentally friendly as the proposed technical screening standards for their inclusion in the green list do not respect the criteria set in existing EU regulations. The committees have also requested that any new or amended delegated acts need to be subject to public consultation and impact assessments.

Provided that at least half of the 705 lawmakers support the resolution, the proposal would not be adopted.

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