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Climate activist Luisa Neubauer protested against the taxonomy in January
Photo: Marek Majewsky / dpa
Are investments in gas and nuclear power sustainable?
Politics, industry and environmentalists have been arguing about this for a long time.
The European Parliament has now decided to classify investments in certain gas and nuclear power plants as climate-friendly - and thus provoked very different reactions.
Disappointment among environmentalists
Environmentalists expressed their deep disappointment with the result of the vote.
“Fridays for Future” activist Luisa Neubauer wrote on Twitter that it was a “hard day”: “EU climate policy has now been permanently weakened.” Parts of the EU Parliament had decided “that they would rather greenwash us all into Nirvana «.
"Fridays for Future" announced that billions of euros are now flowing into new gas infrastructure and nuclear power plants instead of expanding wind and solar power plants.
The Social Democratic MEP Joachim Schuster spoke of a "setback for climate and environmental protection in Europe".
Green politician Michael Bloss commented: »Today is a sad day for the European energy transition.«
Federal Government: Nuclear energy is not sustainable
Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said: "Regardless of the outcome of the vote, the federal government is sticking to its position and considers nuclear energy unsustainable." However, he did not say whether the federal government would have preferred a solution without gas and nuclear power than one with both energy sources.
Opponents also immediately announced that they wanted to take legal action before the European Court of Justice.
The governments of the EU states Austria and Luxembourg had already announced such a step at the beginning of the year in the event that the parliamentary vote failed and have now confirmed their plans.
Left co-boss Martin Schirdewan called on the federal government to support a lawsuit.
Industry welcomes planning security
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala described the legal act on Wednesday as a "difficulty negotiated and fragile compromise".
The liberal-conservative politician argued that a number of EU states could only meet their obligations from the common climate goals with such rules.
They envisage that the EU will become climate neutral by 2050.
(Read here which countries are now benefiting. )
The industry was relieved.
"For security of energy supply in the midst of the current energy crisis, investments in gas infrastructure are needed more than ever, especially in liquid gas terminals," commented Holger Loesch from the Federation of German Industries (BDI).
With the EU taxonomy, the way is now clear for financial flows in the transition from coal and natural gas to renewable and alternative gases - this gives the industry planning security.
Classification is intended to promote investments in climate protection
Specifically, the vote in Parliament was about a supplementary legal act on the so-called taxonomy of the EU.
It is a classification system designed to steer private investment into sustainable economic activities and thus support the fight against climate change.
It is relevant for companies because it influences the investment decisions of investors and could therefore have an impact on the financing costs of projects, for example.
Investors should also be able to avoid investments in climate-damaging economic sectors.
As a first step, a decision was made last year to classify electricity production with solar panels, hydroelectric power or wind power as climate-friendly.
In addition, criteria have been defined for numerous other economic sectors.
For example, they regulate that passenger and freight trains can be classified as climate-friendly without direct CO2 emissions.
kko/dpa
