While achieving the objective of climate neutrality requires in Europe to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 and that electricity production must double by 2050, the nuclear energy is completely omitted by the European green taxonomy, which aims to classify economic activities according to their climate impact, in order to encourage investments towards the most virtuous. However, nuclear energy emits on average only 6 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in France, according to the Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), and 12 grams of CO2 / kWh worldwide, for the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Also, the two senatorial committees, in a transpartisan resolution, plead to integrate nuclear energy into the green taxonomy, ensuring to classify as sustainable the construction and operation of the resulting electricity production facilities, as it is. is the case for renewable energies. They call on the Government to defend this position in the Council when it is consulted on the text that the European Commission should publish by the end of 2021, failing which the financing of the decarbonization of the European economy would be weakened and technological neutrality between the different low-carbon energy sources would not be guaranteed.
This is an essential prerequisite for new investments in nuclear energy, which currently provides two-thirds of France's electricity and contributes to half of the electricity mixes of the Member States of the European Union.
For Sophie Primas, President of the Economic Affairs Committee: “Our committee pleaded for a return to favor of nuclear energy in the“ Energy-Climate ”law of 2019, a resolution in 2021 and the“ Climate and Resilience ”law of 2021. We are calling today for its integration into European green taxonomy. Largely carbon-free, nuclear energy is indeed essential to concretely achieve the objective of carbon neutrality by 2050, resulting from the “Energy-Climate” law and supported by the “Green Pact for Europe” ”.
For Jean-François Rapin, president of the European Affairs Committee: "It is vital that the European Commission integrates nuclear, which is a low-carbon energy, but also inexpensive, abundant and regular, in the category of green investments: it is decisive both to allow the European Union to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050 and to consolidate its strategic autonomy, by reducing its dependence on other energies and on the States that supply them ”.