Updated: May 25, 2021
FINANCIAL TIMES
By Kirsty Gogan, Eric Ingersoll, Rauli Partanen, Staffan Qvist
London, UK
Recently we witnessed rare, and welcome, evidence-based decision-making on Europe’s energy and climate change policies. The decision by the European Council to support the Finnish presidency’s wording in favour of “renewable and climate-neutral energy sources” leaves the door open for nuclear energy to be classified as green in the new EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy (Opinion, FT.com, September 23).
Predictably, Germany, Austria and Luxembourg voted against. History will judge them, and those NGOs, including WWF, that are campaigning to shut down Europe’s largest source of clean energy during the height of this climate emergency. Excluding nuclear from accessing sustainable finance risks undermining climate mitigation scenarios and road maps identified as feasible and necessary by the world’s most credible and authoritative institutions, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, European Investment Bank and the International Energy Agency. All these conclude that nuclear energy should continue to play a significant role in a successful climate mitigation effort.
If nuclear is excluded from sustainable finance, it will result in both new build and life extensions for existing fleet being more difficult to finance, making our climate challenge harder, more expensive, and more likely to fail.
Co-founder, Global Director of Energy for Humanity (and Partner at LucidCatalyst)
Energy Options Network (and Partner at LucidCatalyst)
Think Atom (and Consulting Partner at LucidCatalyst)
Staffan Qvist
Author, energy analyst