Image: APA/AFP/JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK
No sooner has the dispute over the internal combustion engine been settled in Brussels than the next conflict has broken out. This time it’s about nuclear energy. And it is not Germany, but France, that wanted to reverse a decision that had already been made in the Council of Energy Ministers on Tuesday – namely to classify its nuclear power industry as a renewable form of energy.
It was about an amendment to the directive for renewable energies. It defines more ambitious targets for the expansion of wind, water and solar energy. It is about doubling the share of green energies in total consumption in Europe – from the current 22 percent to more than 40 percent. The position of the Council – that is the states – has already been decided. Negotiations with the EU Parliament on the final form of the amendment should soon be entering the home stretch.
Two warehouses in Brussels
But then France stepped in and demanded the so-called “pink hydrogen”, which is produced from nuclear power, to be included in the targets for renewables. That is why the mood at the meeting of energy ministers on Tuesday in Brussels was extremely tense. There were even two camps that met in their own rounds before the start of the meeting.
On the one hand there were nuclear countries under France’s leadership. These included the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Finland, Poland and Bulgaria.
The anti-nuclear coalition included Austria, represented by Leonore Gewessler (Greens), Germany, Belgium, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Ireland.
France never misses an opportunity to position nuclear energy as climate-neutral. The argument: No climate-damaging greenhouse gases are produced during the production of nuclear power. The opponents of nuclear energy point to the unsolved question of final storage of nuclear waste and the risk of accidents.
In this specific case, Austria and the other nuclear-skeptical countries see the goals of the Green Deal in jeopardy: If nuclear states are allowed to include hydrogen produced with nuclear energy in the targets for renewables, then they will have to do far less when expanding classic sustainable forms of energy. You can get the “pink hydrogen” count towards the targets and save on green investments. (via)
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