Seven EU states – Austria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain – have united to resist the motion from France to count nuclear energy towards EU renewable energy targets, as part of EU plans to increase renewable energy significantly this decade.
Continuing a long-running row, the seven countries wrote to Sweden in the nation’s current capacity of EU presidency and policy negotiation representative, calling for the targets to be kept free of non-renewable energy sources. They wrote that including low-carbon hydrogen and low-carbon fuels in the 2030 renewable energy targets would slow down renewables deployment, preventing hitting EU climate targets during this all-important decade.
They offer the alternative position that renewable energy capacity can be installed within short timeframes and relatively inexpensively.
France, Poland, the Czech Republic and six other pro-nuclear EU countries have argued that nuclear power supports the development of hydrogen fuel. Hydrogen plays a heavy role in the EU’s strategy to transition to cleaner industry.
Source
Germany, Spain push to keep nuclear out of EU renewable energy goals, Reuters, 2023-03-16
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