The EU is currently seeking approval from EU countries and European Parliament for its new plan to label natural gas and nuclear energy as climate-friendly investments.

In a statement, Germany’s environment ministry and its economy and climate ministry said that the German government “has expressed its opposition to the taxonomy rules on nuclear power. This ‘no’ is an important political signal that makes clear: Nuclear energy is not sustainable and should therefore not be part of the taxonomy,”. 

They added that this means the German government would be voting in council “to object to the EU Commission’s delegated legal act,” which would label nuclear as a climate-friendly investment.

In order for the rules to fail, 20 of the 27 EU countries would need to oppose the inclusion. 

The EU is trying to set up a process to identify projects and investments for green investing by limiting which investments can be labeled as climate-friendly. Currently, the EU is trying to include both nuclear energy and gas under the climate-friendly umbrella for investments.

The inclusion of gas has been argued to incentivize gas investments over coal investments to phase out the use of coal since gas emits less CO2. 

In the past, Austria Climate Minister Leonore Gewessler said gas and nuclear should be excluded “because they are harmful to the climate and the environment and destroy the future of our children.”

Similarly, German Green lawmaker Michael Bloss said that “Nuclear power and fossil gas are not ‘sustainable’, far too dangerous and not a bridge technology,”.