Who presses on green nuclear power in Europe
France leads a group of European countries that is pressing Brussels to include nuclear energy in the new rules on sustainable finance. All the details
A group of European countries, headed by France, is putting pressure on the European Union to include nuclear power as one of the "clean" energy sources admitted in the forthcoming package of rules on sustainable finance.
EUROPEAN RULES ON SUSTAINABLE FINANCE
In the coming months, the European Commission should finalize the drafting of the so-called “taxonomy on sustainable finance”. That is a set of rules – the first in the world – which will serve to direct the flows of investments towards destinations with a positive environmental impact, avoiding on the contrary that they are directed towards polluting activities and with a high carbon footprint.
DISPUTES ABOUT GAS AND NUCLEAR
The most critical point, as well as the one that is complicating the discussions, concerns the inclusion or not of natural gas and nuclear energy among the energy sources that can be classified as "green" investments.
Natural gas is a fossil fuel and as such generates greenhouse gas emissions (methane, for example), but it is also less polluting than coal and oil and therefore can be useful in replacing them. In the short-medium term, then – at least until new technologies are established, that is – gas will be able to play a complementary role to renewable sources, compensating for the intermittency of generation (gas plants do not depend on the weather for the production of energy as wind and solar plants).
Like natural gas, nuclear power can also "assist" intermittent renewables and guarantee stability to the electricity grid, supplying energy to the system in times of peak demand. Nuclear power does not even emit carbon dioxide, which would make it a source consistent with the objectives of decarbonisation of the energy mix; but it is a controversial source both for fears about its safety and for the question of radioactive waste.
WHO PRESSES FOR THE NUCLEAR AND WHY
In favor of including nuclear energy among the "clean" sources are France, Finland, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia.
A statement signed by all these countries states that “to overcome the climate challenge, we need nuclear energy. It is, for all of us, a crucial and reliable asset for a low-carbon future ”. For these reasons, they say, it should be included in the rules on sustainable finance.
It is not strange that the group is headed by France: nuclear power occupies a very significant share in the country's energy mix: 70 percent of French electricity is generated from nuclear power. If the source were excluded from the taxonomy for green finance, Paris would not have access to a whole range of funding and the economic damage would be significant.
THE CRISIS OF GAS PRICES
Reinforcing the message of the pro-nuclear bloc is the huge increase in natural gas prices in Europe . Among the causes is also the role of Russia, the main supplier of gas to the Old Continent, which, however, is not exporting as much fuel as it could.
France and other countries say that rising energy prices are showing the importance for Europe of reducing dependence on third countries as soon as possible – that on Russia is high especially in Central and Eastern Europe – to focus on the energy sources in its possession: nuclear power, in fact.
THE EUROPEAN NUCLEAR DIVISIONS
Nuclear energy is used in thirteen countries of the European Union and accounts for around a quarter of the electricity produced throughout the bloc. In France, as mentioned, it generates 70 per cent of electricity; in the Czech Republic more than 35 per cent; in Finland around 30 per cent.
Promoters of this source (such as France) insist that it does not generate direct carbon dioxide emissions. On the other hand, the opposites (such as Germany) put the emphasis on the management of radioactive waste and on the costs and times of realization of the plants.
In recent months, ministers from five European countries – Germany, Austria, Spain, Denmark, Luxembourg – have sent a letter to the Commission asking for the exclusion of nuclear power from "green" sources, so as to prevent it from accessing various aid and support measures .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/europa-nucleare-transizione-energetica/ on Tue, 12 Oct 2021 08:28:53 +0000.