[Image: BayWa AG/Falk Heller]
‘The most recent draft of the taxonomy is unsuitable for some renewable energy initiatives.’
According to BayWa CEO Klaus Josef Lutz, the current draft of EU sustainable finance policies would postpone the energy transition and raise expenses.
According to Lutz, the EU taxonomy only covers elements of value creation, and organizations whose contribution to sustainability is not now deemed important risk being deemed less sustainable than they are.
As a result, he believes they will be unable to employ green finance mechanisms in the future.
“The current debate completely ignores the fact that, as a result of the EU taxonomy, enterprises who have been making a demonstrable contribution to a climate-neutral energy supply for decades would soon be worse off than less sustainable business models,” said Lutz.
“While nuclear and natural gas power facilities, which are clearly unsustainable, will be granted a green cloak, the trade in solar modules and green electricity will be excluded from the taxonomic requirements.”
“As a result, they are not regarded as important in terms of sustainability and climate protection.” This is ludicrous, given the EU taxonomy’s purpose of rewarding businesses who match their investments with sustainability and improve their competitiveness.”
The BayWa CEO also feels that this will make it more difficult for Germany’s government to meet its target of increasing renewable energy’s proportion of the power supply to 80% by 2030.
Labeling gas and nuclear as sustainable is not compatible with EU Taxonomy Regulation, according to the Platform on Sustainable Finance, an official advisory body to the European Commission supporting the creation of the EU list of sustainable activities.
“The Commission’s proposal considers natural gas and nuclear to be green energy sources,” said Mathilde Crepy, senior program manager for the Environmental Coalition on Standards.
“Considerating fossil gas and nuclear as sustainable energy sources is a disaster for the environment and science, as well as a legal violation of the Taxonomy Regulation.”
“We encourage the Commission to cease caving in to the gas and nuclear lobbyists, and to stop greenwashing ecologically destructive energy practices at the institutional level.”
The Platform on Sustainable Finance is a member of the coalition.