EU Commission Plans To Include Nuclear In The European Taxonomy

The European Commission announced on 21 April its decision to include nuclear energy in a complementary Delegated Act of the EU Taxonomy Regulation.

The Delegated Act, which will be consistent with the conclusions of a Joint Research Centre report on nuclear power, will confirm the energy source is as sustainable as other taxonomy-compliant power technologies.

The decision follows two previous recommendations on the EU Taxonomy:

• the report by the technical expert group (TEG) advising the European Commission on sustainable finance, which concluded that there is clear evidence that nuclear substantially contributes to climate mitigation, recommending at the same time that more extensive technical work should be undertaken (March 2020);
• the EU Commission JRC technical report on the ‘do no significant harm‘ aspects of nuclear energy, which concludes that nuclear energy does no more harm to human health or the environment than any other power-producing technology considered to be sustainable.

The Commission said that the complementary Delegated Act will be subject to a specific review process underway in accordance with the EU Taxonomy Regulation.

This procedure, based on the JRC report, will include the review of two groups of experts – the Euratom Article 31 experts group and the Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks – to complete the scientific evaluation.

The Commission said these reviews will “complete the scientific evaluation” and be finalised in June 2021.

Read the full EU Commission Communication on EU Taxonomy here.