FORATOM welcomes the outcome of the Trilogue on the Taxonomy regulation

Brussels, 18 December 2019: FORATOM welcomes the agreement reached in Trilogue between the Council, Parliament and Commission on the proposal for a regulation on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment (so-called “Taxonomy”) and the fact that the agreed text does not exclude nuclear energy from the regulation. In reference to the delegated acts, which subject nuclear energy to a “do no significant harm” assessment, FORATOM calls on the European Commission to adopt a technology neutral and fact-based approach.

In FORATOM’s view, the “do no significant harm” assessment – which will then enable a decision on whether nuclear (and other technologies) is eligible for sustainable finance or not – should be undertaken by experts with a strong knowledge of the nuclear life cycle. FORATOM is confident that such a thorough and fact-based approach, which will evaluate selected energy sources on the basis of objective criteria (including CO2 emissions, volume and  traceability of waste, raw material consumption and land use impacts), will lead to the recognition of nuclear energy as a sustainable source of energy that contributes significantly to climate change mitigation. Furthermore, in order to ensure a level-playing field, FORATOM believes that the same criteria should be applied equally to all power producing technologies.

Find out more in FORATOM’s recent Position Paper on the Sustainable Finance Initiative.

About us: The European Atomic Forum (FORATOM) is the Brussels-based trade association for the nuclear energy industry in Europe. The membership of FORATOM is made up of 15 national nuclear associations and through these associations, FORATOM represents nearly 3,000 European companies working in the industry and supporting around 1,100,000 jobs.

For more information, please contact Witold Strzelecki: witold.strzelecki@foratom.org.