Austria has failed in its legal bid to overturn European Union rules designating nuclear energy and natural gas as climate-friendly investments, after the EU’s General Court sided with Brussels.
The Austrian government had challenged the European Commission’s 2022 decision to include the two energy sources in the EU’s sustainable finance taxonomy, which defines which investments can be labelled and marketed as “green” in Europe.
In its ruling on Wednesday, the court said the Commission “was entitled to take the view that certain economic activities in the nuclear energy and fossil gas sectors can, under certain conditions, contribute substantially to climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation.”
Austria’s environment ministry described the judgment as “very regrettable”, reiterating its long-standing opposition to nuclear power. “We were and remain of the opinion that nuclear power does not meet the criteria for environmental sustainability. Fossil gas will also only play a temporary role in the energy transition,” the ministry said. It added that the government would examine the decision before considering further steps, including a possible appeal.
The taxonomy has been politically divisive from the outset. While Austria, Spain and Denmark argued that labelling gas as climate-friendly undermines the EU’s credibility, countries such as Poland and Bulgaria pushed for its inclusion to support their transition away from coal.
Austria’s case, launched under a previous coalition in which the Greens held the environment ministry, argued that nuclear power fails the EU’s “do no significant harm” test because of the risks linked to radioactive waste. Austria has long pursued a national policy against nuclear energy.
