EU Returns to Science-Based Decision-Making in Landmark Nuclear Report
Last year, the EU established a classification system called the EU Taxonomy Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (Taxonomy) on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment) that sets out the parameters for determining what activities can be classed as environmentally sustainable. The main objective of the Taxonomy is to enable the EU to meet its 2030 climate and energy targets, consistent with the EU’s “green vision” for a carbon-neutral economy.
However, despite nuclear energy being one of the two largest sources of carbon-free electricity in the EU (hydro is the other), some EU members have opposed the classification of nuclear as sustainable not only due to scientific concerns about the disposal of used nuclear fuel but also due to general political opposition to nuclear.
In a refreshing return to science-based decision-making, the EU Commission appointed the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the EU’s technical in-house science and knowledge body, to make a determination on whether nuclear energy should be labeled a sustainable or a transition technology under the EU’s green finance rules. In March 2021, the JRC issued its report determining that nuclear energy qualifies as an environmentally sustainable energy source. The JRC report considered the potential and existing nuclear impacts of the whole nuclear energy life cycle, including performing a detailed review of the management of the generated nuclear waste.
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