Economy minister confirms end of Germany's resistance to nuclear power at EU level
Clean Energy Wire / FT
Economy and energy minister Katherina Reiche has confirmed media reports that her government agreed with France to largely drop its resistance to supporting new nuclear power technology at the EU level.
“We agreed that low-emission technologies and those that do not cause CO2 emissions will be preferred in the taxonomy,” said Reiche ahead of meeting of EU ministers responsible for the internal market and industry. She added Germany would “respect” other member states’ choice of energy mix, despite ruling out a return to nuclear power in Germany.
Asked whether the EU budget could be used to help fund nuclear power projects, she stressed that support was about new technologies, such as Small Modular Reactors (SMR). In addition, Germany would continue to make it possible to support renewable energies. Despite phasing-out conventional nuclear energy generation in 2023, Germany continues to run national research programmes into nuclear fusion technology in a bid to develop a complementary technology to its otherwise renewables-based future energy system.
The Financial Times had reported the agreement between France and Germany earlier this week. Germany has repeatedly objected to nuclear power being categorised as a green technology in EU legislation, meaning it would be considered alongside renewable energies when it comes to the allocation of subsidies. The lingering difference in opinion on the topic between Paris and Berlin has been an obstacle for the EU's transition to climate neutrality.
The EU taxonomy – a system that defines companies’ activities as sustainable along several key objectives, including climate change mitigation – is a tool to steer billions of euros of investments to help decarbonise the bloc’s economies. Investors can use the taxonomy to identify environmentally sustainable investments; while technologies included in the taxonomy can attract more funding, or may qualify for preferential financing conditions such as lower interest rates. A 2022 decision to label certain nuclear and fossil gas projects as sustainable under the taxonomy had sparked an outcry of governments, investors, researchers and NGOs, especially in Germany.
