BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The EU’s executive on Monday rejected suggestions it waited until New Year’s Eve to publish divisive proposals to allow some natural gas and nuclear energy projects to be labelled as sustainable, saying “we weren’t trying to do it on the sly”.
The Commission’s decision to include gas and nuclear investments in the European Union’s “sustainable finance taxonomy” rules was circulated in a draft proposal late on Dec. 31 and leaked to some media organisations.
“Short of digging an actual hole, the European Commission couldn’t have tried harder to bury this proposal,” Henry Eviston, spokesman on sustainable finance at the European Policy Office of the environmental group WWF, said in an online posting.
“When the question was whether renewables are green, the Commission gave citizens three chances to provide their opinion. For fossil gas and nuclear, we get a document written behind closed doors and published on New Year’s Eve.”
If the Commission is confident in its proposal, it must hold a public consultation, he said.
European Commission Chief Spokesperson Eric Mamer told a news briefing that the executive had committed to presenting its position on what was a “very complex and sensitive topic” before the end of the year.
“We weren’t trying to do it on the sly, if you like, by going for Dec. 31,” he said. “I can assure you our colleagues would much prefer to have been relaxing on holiday, but they decided to continue their work through the Christmas holidays to make sure this came out before the end of the year.”
During months of heated debate on the proposals, some EU countries said gas investments were needed to help them quit more-polluting coal. Others said labelling a fossil fuel as green would undermine the credibility of the rules and of the EU as it seeks to be a global leader in tackling climate change.
Nuclear energy is similarly divisive. France, the Czech Republic and Poland are among those saying the fuel’s low CO2 emissions mean it has a big role in curbing global warming. Austria, Germany and Luxembourg are among those opposed, citing concerns around radioactive waste.
The Commission’s draft will feed into a proposal this month for a list of economic activities and the environmental criteria they must meet to be labelled as sustainable investments.
The aim is to make those investments more attractive to private capital, and stop greenwashing, whereby companies or investors overstate their eco-friendly credentials.
(Reporting by John Chalmers; editing by Barbara Lewis)
