EU Classifies Nuclear Power as 'Green Activity'... Draft Green Taxonomy Released

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] The European Union (EU) draft taxonomy classifying nuclear power generation as an environmentally and climate-friendly 'green' business was released on the 2nd.

According to foreign media, the European Commission, the EU's executive body, recently sent a draft of the sustainable finance taxonomy classifying investments in natural gas and nuclear power generation as environmentally and climate-friendly 'green' to member states.

The draft is expected to be finalized later this month after thorough review by the 27 member states and expert panels. The EU member states or the EU Parliament can veto the published draft by majority vote.

This EU draft takes a different path from Korea's green taxonomy finalized on December 30 last year, which excluded nuclear power and partially included liquefied natural gas (LNG) power generation. The green taxonomy defines which economic activities are environmentally friendly and contribute to carbon neutrality, essentially serving as the 'investment criteria' for green finance. Korea included 69 economic activities related to renewable energy production such as solar power and solar thermal energy, as well as related infrastructure development activities, but excluded nuclear power. 'Energy production based on LNG and mixed gases' and 'hydrogen production based on LNG (blue hydrogen)' were conditionally included in the transition sector.

The Ministry of Environment had previously cited the EU's exclusion of nuclear power from its green taxonomy as a major reason for excluding nuclear power from Korea's green taxonomy, but the actual EU draft includes nuclear power.

When the Ministry of Environment announced the final K-Taxonomy on the 30th of last month, it stated that it considered the absence of plans to increase nuclear power in the '2030 National Greenhouse Gas Reduction Target (NDC)' and the '2050 Carbon Neutrality Scenario,' but also said it would continue to review the inclusion of nuclear power in the green taxonomy by referring to trends in the EU and other entities.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.