On 2 February 2022, the European Commission issued its Taxonomy Complementary Climate Delegated Act to include nuclear power and natural gas in the taxonomy for sustainable economic activities. Under this Delegated Act, investments in nuclear power or gas are to be recognised as sustainable, which would allow them to benefit from certain financial advantages. The Commission is refuting the criticism it has had from Member States and the Platform on Sustainable Finance, arguing that the inclusion of nuclear power and natural gas in the taxonomy is necessary for decarbonisation, especially for the exit from coal, and therefore for reaching climate neutrality. The purpose of taxonomy, however, is to assess whether a given economic activity can be recognised as environmentally sustainable. This should be done without considerations of energy security or national energy policy.

Economic Affairs and Climate Minister Robert Habeck commented: “We have repeatedly voiced our opinion that we consider it wrong to include nuclear energy in the taxonomy. Nuclear energy is high-risk and expensive; even new reactor designs such as mini reactors raise similar problems and cannot be classed as sustainable. This entire move flies in the face of the good notion of taxonomy and counteracts its objectives.”

Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection Steffi Lemke also took a critical stance: “Just like a number of other EU Member States, the Federal Government is clearly opposed to the inclusion of nuclear energy in the taxonomy. Nuclear power is not sustainable, it carries immense risks, is excessively expensive and planning and construction processes in this field take far too long for this technology to be able to make a contribution to climate neutrality. To designate nuclear power as sustainable is incompatible with the notion of sustainability held by consumers in Germany and other European Member States.”

Ministers Lemke and Habeck went on to explain that the Federal Government would now consider how to deal with the decision made by the European Commission. They had already made it clear in January that they want Germany to reject the Complementary Delegated Act, unless it sees some significant changes. Said Federal Minister Robert Habeck: “We are not seeing the changes that we consider to be necessary.”

Added Federal Minister Steffi Lemke: “In its current form, I consider this Delegated Act to be a major mistake that will cause significant damage to the taxonomy as a whole and might put our climate targets at risk. What we need is a credible standard for sustainability to be used by the financial markets, which will be effective in preventing greenwashing and in channelling investments to those areas where they are urgently needed: the swift expansion of renewables and a sustainable energy transition. Every additional billion that will be used for nuclear power due to this decision by the European Commission will be missing elsewhere. This is why we will advocate for the standard for European green bonds that is currently being negotiated at EU level to exclude nuclear power.”

Further information and next steps:
The Federal Government’s comments on the Commission’s Delegated Act can be found here.
You can find a list of FAQs here.