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Nuclear and Gas: the Commission is starting to classify them as “Green Energy”

According to a draft regulation by the EU Commission, permits issued by 2045 for new nuclear power plants should be fundable. The final decision will be made in two weeks. Criticisms come from the Federal Minister for the Environment and the German Environmental Aid.

In fifteen days, the Commission will have to definitively define which energies are "Green", therefore compatible with the subsidized loans and facilities provided by the European programs. According to the German newspaper Die Welt, the EU Commission wants to classify the production of energy from natural gas and nuclear fission as climate-friendly. According to a draft regulation by the Brussels authority, presented on Saturday to the AFP news agency and viewed by the Reuters news agency, the permits issued for the new nuclear power plants should fall under the so-called taxonomy regulation by 2045 and construction could therefore be subsidized at national and European level. For new gas infrastructure, this should apply under certain conditions until 2030 .

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 EU Commission had already presented the related legal act in April. At the time, however, the authority overlooked the delicate issue of gas and nuclear energy evaluation. We should await further appraisals and evaluations.

"It must be recognized that the fossil gas and nuclear energy sectors can contribute to the decarbonisation of the EU economy", now reads the draft Brussels document. The Commission has not yet officially presented the proposal. According to information from circles in Brussels and Berlin, the draft was sent to the governments of the 27 member states on New Year's Eve just before midnight for a consultation process.

According to the document, the "construction and safe operation of new nuclear power plants to generate electricity or heat, including hydrogen, using the best available technologies" should be considered taxonomy, that is, sustainable and climate-friendly. Additional requirements are foreseen for the long-term management of radioactive waste, for example.

The decision is at least strange, but it clearly indicates how important both the nation states with the most powerful governments, not the half socks, and the lobbies matter. Claiming that natural gas plants are "Carbon free" is a mockery of logic, but it meets the wishes of the very powerful Russian-German natural gas lobby, the one that, to make us understand, is headed by former Chancellor Schroeder . The spread that Nord – Stream 2 made, only to have to slow down so as not to irritate the USA and Eastern countries too much. On the other hand, France which, in this way, will renew its nuclear park, now obsolete, with the money of the Commission.

It's Italy? We are neither on the nuclear train, at least for now, nor do we have a particular interest in increasing the already abundant use of gas. Since the funds will be diverted in favor of these two forms of energy, we are the ones who, as always, remain with one hand in front, and one behind …


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The article Nuclear and Gas: the Commission is about to classify them as "Green Energy" comes from ScenariEconomici.it .


This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/nucleare-a-gas-la-commissione-si-avvia-a-classificarle-come-energia-verde/ on Sat, 01 Jan 2022 17:56:05 +0000.