The EU Green Taxonomy Soap Opera feat. Myrto Tripathi

The EU Green Taxonomy has been a source of acrimony in the EU
since it launched. It was meant as a tool to guide investment
towards a "low carbon, resilient and resource-efficient economy"
by classiflying technologies into three tiers: "Sustainable,"
"Transitory," or "Brown." 


The initial categorization committee did not include scientists
or engineers but rather limited itself to green finance and
environmental NGO's who constrained the sustainable definition to
wind, solar and tidal, exluding nuclear and even hydro. 


Over time, more and more interest groups have entered the fray,
exposing serious dissension within the EU member states, who are
bitterly divided into blocs based on their opinions about the
role of Nuclear Energy and Natural Gas. 


In addition to EU members, green NGOs, oil and gas, the renewable
industry and nuclear advocates have stepped into the fray. As a
result the sustainable category has grown to include bio-energy,
geothermal, and hydro alongside wind and solar.  


Nuclear went under the closest scrutiny of any power generation
technology, with a Joint Research Council report finding that
nuclear was no more harmful to human health or the environment
than other electricity production technologies already included
in the sustainable category of the Green Taxonomy.


As it stands, Nuclear and Natural gas have been put in a special
category for further consideration, but nuclear seems to be out
of the running as a "sustainable" technology. The fate of its
final status will have dramatic impacts on the ability for
nuclear to bring back energy sovereignty and stability to the EU
grid, which is currently in crisis due to volatile and extremely
high gas prices. 


Myrto Tripathi of Voices of Nuclear joins me to lay out the cast
of characters and the soap opera-like drama of the EU Green
Taxonomy process so far. Join her at Stand up for Nuclear Paris,
which will be occurring Oct 9th from 1100-1700 local time. For
more info go to
https://www.voicesofnuclear.org/stand-up-for-nuclear-2021/