After years of fighting between governments over which investments are truly climate-friendly, the European Union has drawn up plans to classify some natural gas and nuclear energy projects as "green" investments.
The European Commission is expected to propose rules in January that will determine whether gas and nuclear projects are included in the EU sustainable finance taxonomy.
This is a list of economic activities and the environmental criteria they must meet in order to be considered a green investment.
By restricting the "green" label to really climate-friendly projects, the system is intended to make these investments more attractive for private capital and to prevent "greenwashing", in which companies or investors exaggerate their environmental friendliness.
Brussels has also taken steps to apply the system to some EU funding, which means that the rules could decide which projects are eligible for specific public funding.
A draft of the Commission's proposal, which the Reuters news agency has received, stipulates that investments in nuclear power plants will be classified as environmentally friendly if the project has a plan, funding and a location to safely dispose of radioactive waste. In order to be considered green, new nuclear power plants must obtain a building permit before 2045.
Investments in natural gas power plants would also be considered green if they emit less than 270 g CO2 equivalent per kilowatt hour (kWh), replace a more polluting fossil-fuel power plant, receive a building permit by December 31, 2030 and switch to low-carbon gases by the end of 2035 should be.
Gas and nuclear power plants would be classified as "green" because they are "transitional activities"; H. Activities that are not fully sustainable, but whose emissions are below the industry average and which do not include environmentally harmful facilities.
"Taking into account the scientific advice and current technological advances, as well as the different transition challenges in each Member State, the Commission believes that natural gas and nuclear energy can play a role in facilitating the transition to a predominantly renewable future" the European Commission said in a statement.
To help countries with different energy backgrounds make the transition, "under certain conditions, solutions that do not look exactly 'green' at first glance can make sense," a commission source told Reuters, adding that investments in gas and Nuclear energy would be subject to "stringent conditions".
EU countries and a panel of experts will examine the draft proposal, which may change, before it is published at the end of January. Once published, a majority of EU countries or the European Parliament could veto it.
Policy has been hampered by government lobbying for over a year, and EU countries disagree on which fuels are truly sustainable.
Natural gas emits around half as much CO2 as coal when burned in power plants, but the gas infrastructure has also been linked to the release of methane, a gas that warms the earth a lot.
The EU advisers had recommended that gas-fired power plants should only be classified as green investments if they adhere to a lower limit of 100g CO2e / kWh, which is based on the profound emission reductions that scientists believe are necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change to prevent.
Nuclear energy has very low emissions of CO2, but this year the Commission consulted experts on whether the fuel should be classified as environmentally friendly given the potential environmental impact of radioactive waste management.
Some environmentalists and green EU parliamentarians criticized the leaked proposal on gas and nuclear power.
"By including these two fuels, the Commission is jeopardizing the credibility of the EU's role as the leading marketplace for sustainable finance," said Greens Chairman Philippe Lamberts.
Austria rejects nuclear energy, as do countries like Germany and Luxembourg. EU countries such as the Czech Republic, Finland and France, which get around 70% of their electricity from this fuel, consider nuclear energy to be crucial for phasing out CO2-emitting coal-based power generation.
