EU energy ministers spar over nuclear power’s green credentials
Atomic fallout
A proposal by France to treat nuclear energy as equivalent to renewables is unlikely to be agreed in today’s energy ministers’ meeting, but the French fight to get a green stamp for their nuclear reactors does not end here.
Context: France is pushing for nuclear energy to be recognised as a low-carbon energy source and to count towards the EU’s planned target of producing 40 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2030. Nuclear power plants generated around two-thirds of France’s electricity output in 2022.
Countries such as Germany and Austria argue such a move would undermine efforts to expand solar, wind and other renewable power sources that count towards the target.
The file on the ministers’ agenda today regards new rules for gas infrastructure, including hydrogen. This fuel can be made from solar and wind energy — and called renewable — or with nuclear power, defined as low-carbon hydrogen under the rules.
Paris has proposed low-carbon hydrogen to be counted towards countries’ renewable targets. In the latest version of the gas text seen by the Financial Times, the paragraph had been deleted, though a final agreement had not been reached yet, EU diplomats said last night.
“There is a minority of member states that requests that nuclear would be counted towards the renewable targets, and there is another minority that is against,” said a senior EU diplomat.
Before the meeting, both the pro and contra nuclear camps are having breakfast to formulate strategies, according to the diplomats.
The Swedish presidency, which is mediating the negotiations, aims for a deal today.
Even if the French proposal is taken out, the nuclear debate will continue during negotiations between the European parliament and the member states tomorrow over the so-called Renewable Energy Directive, which concerns the renewables target itself.
One solution that was discussed, according to diplomats, is for hydrogen made from nuclear power to be allowed to count only in part towards the countries’ targets.
Opening the renewables package this late in the negotiations is not popular with everyone, however, especially after a similar German move in already-concluded talks on combustion engines plunged Brussels into turmoil.
“If you allow this, especially after the combustion engine issue, it threatens legal certainty in the future,” an EU diplomat said.