The European Parliament's committees on Economic Affairs and the Environment want investments in fossil gas and nuclear energy not to be labeled as sustainable. This is in contrast to what the European Commission proposed in the so-called taxonomy.
The objection that Dutch GreenLeft MEP Bas Eickhout submitted against the proposal was adopted with 76 votes to 62. A vote for the entire European Parliament will follow in early July.
The vote takes place in the context of the war with Russia and rising gas prices. Promoting investments in gas has therefore come under a different light. Dutch MEP Paul Tang called the result a good stimulus for European autonomy. "We must invest in renewable energy to get off the Russian gas drip."
Eickhout called it "madness to designate gas as a sustainable investment while we are in the middle of a climate crisis and an economic war with Putin. We really have to prevent investments in expensive nuclear and fossil energy at the expense of sustainable energy."
The decision to include gas and nuclear energy on the subsidizable list for sustainable investments was made in a so-called delegated act that the European Parliament can block by an absolute majority (353 of 705) of votes. If that happens, the European Commission must come up with a new proposal.
Reportedly, Climate Commissioner Frans Timmermans agrees in principle with the objections of his opponents against including gas and nuclear energy in the taxonomy list, but last year the majority of the European Commission agreed under pressure from Germany and France.
France wanted to keep its own nuclear energy sector eligible for subsidies, and Germany still wanted to protect the (Russian) Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline at the time. Meanwhile, the new German "traffic light" coalition is against the gas taxonomy.
It is uncertain whether the majority of the full European Parliament will follow the decision of the ENVI environment committee in early July. A week ago, the plenary parliament rejected earlier amendments from the Environment Committee to prematurely abolish the free emission allowances of the ETS emissions system.
With the support of a large part of the Christian Democratic EPP and of conservative and right-wing nationalist groups, important climate laws by Timmermans were blocked.