Austria’s push to scrap nuclear from taxonomy snubbed by EU court

Austria’s attempt to prevent the EU categorising nuclear power and natural gas as "sustainable" for the purposes of EU investment schemes was dismissed by the EU court on Wednesday. 

Including the two sources of power within the EU taxonomy as sustainable was a “gradual” measure which would “allow security of supply”, judges found.

A traditional anti-nuclear member state, Austria filed a lawsuit against the European Commission in October 2022 but the Luxembourg-based General Court backed the EU executive, arguing that it didn't exceed its powers when including nuclear energy and fossil gas in the sustainable investment scheme.

It means certain activities in the nuclear energy and fossil gas sectors may be classified as contributors to climate change mitigation or climate change adaptation.

EU taxonomy rules are a sort of green rulebook to guide investors, businesses and governments on which economic activities are environmentally friendly. These rules kicked off in July 2020 aimed at mitigating climate change, pollution and fight greenwashing.

“The Commission was entitled to take the view that nuclear energy generation has near to zero greenhouse gas emissions,” the Court declared, adding that the EU executive took "sufficient account" of the risks associated with normal operation of nuclear power plants, serious reactor accidents and high-level radioactive waste.

With binding climate rules to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, reach climate neutrality by 2050, and with an impending 2040 climate target currently under discussion, the court ruling also took into account the lack of available sufficient alternatives, such as wind and solar power, at the scale required to address energy needs in a continuous and reliable manner.

“This ruling sends a disastrous signal to the entire EU. If this assessment stands, it destroys a basic principle: where it says green, it is no longer truly green. Those who want green will end up with nuclear power or dirty gas,” Parliamentary leader of the Austrian Greens, Leonore Gewessler, reacted in a note seen by Euronews in which she urged the country’s climate and environmental minister Norbert Totschnig to “immediately appeal” the judgment.

As Austria’s responsible minister in 2022, Gewessler filed the lawsuit against parts of the EU taxonomy claiming that the law would open the door to the greenwashing of climate-damaging and dangerous technologies.

“Nuclear power is dangerous, expensive, and leaves behind highly radioactive waste for hundreds of thousands of years. It is not a solution to the climate crisis – it creates new dangers. Every euro wasted on costly reactors is missing from the expansion of the real solutions: solar, wind, water, and geothermal energy,” Gewessler added.