Taxonomy Regulation - Austria's Lawsuit Rejected
The EU court in Luxembourg dismissed Austria's lawsuit against the classification of nuclear energy and gas as sustainable on Wednesday. At the beginning of 2022, the EU taxonomy regulation was expanded after long discussions. This aims to classify economic activities according to ecological standards and thus stimulate investments. Environment and Climate Minister Norbert Totschnig found the decision "very regrettable" in an initial reaction.
"Judgment acknowledged"
"We have acknowledged the judgment," said Totschnig on Wednesday on the sidelines of a press conference. "For us, it is completely clear that nuclear power is certainly not a sustainable form of energy," said the minister. With regard to climate neutrality, it is also clear that fossil fuels are not sustainable. We will now take a close look at the wording and consider further steps.
For Green Party leader Leonore Gewessler, "nuclear power is not green." She demanded that the government must appeal the judgment. The SPÖ-EU deputies Evelyn Regner and Günther Sidl expressed disappointment. They spoke of a "bitter pill" for the environment.
"Gray day for climate protection"
GLOBAL 2000 criticized this development in the strongest terms," said Patricia Lorenz, anti-nuclear spokesperson for the environmental protection organization. Herbert Stoiber, managing director of "atomstopp_atomkraftfrei leben!", spoke of a "gray day for climate protection". For Vienna's climate councilor Jürgen Czernohorszky, the EU is taking a "dangerous path".
According to a press release, the court does not see any overstepping of the powers effectively conferred on it by the Union legislator in the inclusion of nuclear energy and fossil gas in the regulation for sustainable investments by the EU Commission. In particular, the Commission was entitled to assume that the generation of nuclear energy causes almost no greenhouse gas emissions and that there are currently no technically feasible and economically viable low-CO2 alternatives, such as renewable energy sources, available in sufficient quantities to continuously and reliably meet energy needs, it said.
Certain investments in gas or nuclear power plants are considered sustainable if they use the most modern technologies and - in the case of gas - replace even more climate-damaging coal-fired power plants. The taxonomy regulation is particularly significant for the financial sector, as it also determines which investments can be considered "green". Austria, which had already excluded the use of nuclear energy in 1978, wants the court to declare the regulation null and void. In June 2023, it had already dismissed the lawsuit of a German EU parliamentarian, as individual parliamentarians could not file a lawsuit here.
Appeal possible at the ECJ
The Republic put forward 16 grounds for the lawsuit. The EU Commission is accused, among other things, of "misunderstanding the risks of significant impairment of several of the protected environmental goals due to severe reactor accidents and the highly radioactive waste." After the General Court's ruling, one of the parties to the proceedings can file an appeal with the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
(APA/Red)
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.
