‘Putin rubbing hands with glee’ after EU votes to class gas and nuclear as green

theguardian.com:

The European parliament has backed plans to label gas and nuclear energy as “green”, rejecting appeals from Ukraine and climate activists that the proposals are “a gift to Putin”.

The vote was a “dark day for the climate”, said one senior MEP, while experts warned the EU had set a dangerous precedent for other countries to follow.

The row began late last year with the leak of long-awaited details on the EU’s green investment guidebook, intended to help investors channel billions to the clean power transition.

The European Commission decided that some gas and nuclear projects could be included in the EU taxonomy of environmentally sustainable economic activities, subject to certain conditions.

Under the plans, gas can be classed as a sustainable investment if “the same energy capacity cannot be generated with renewable sources” and plans are in place to switch to renewables or “low carbon gases”. Nuclear power can be called green if a project promises to deal with radioactive waste.

The plan could only be stopped by a majority of EU member states or members of the European parliament.

With most EU governments in favour, attention turned to the European parliament, but on Wednesday, MEPs failed to muster a blocking majority. Only 282 MEPs voted in favour of an amendment against the inclusion of gas and nuclear, falling short of the 353 votes needed to overturn the decision.

The MEP Bas Eickhout, vice-president of the European parliament’s environment committee, said it was “dark day for the climate and energy transition”.

The veteran Dutch MEP, who led the parliament in intra-EU negotiations on the taxonomy regulation, said the EU was “sending a disastrous signal to investors and the rest of the world” that it recognises fossil