Behind the curtains: when the gas and nuclear lobbies reshape the EU sustainable taxonomy

On August 25th, 2020, Reclaim Finance publishes a briefing warning about the extent of fossil gas and nuclear lobbying on the EU sustainable taxonomy and underlining the possibility that these previously excluded energies would be reintegrated. Reclaim Finance calls on the EU Commission to exclude natural gas and nuclear from the taxonomy and cut all ties with fossil fuel lobbies.

Reclaim Finance investigated how fossil gas and nuclear lobbies are trying to influence the taxonomy process. The briefing, entitled “Behind the curtains: when the gas and nuclear lobbies reshape the EU sustainable taxonomy,” summarizes the results of this investigation studying data reported by companies, lobbying agencies and organizations from the natural gas and nuclear sector in the EU transparency register since 2018.

Highlights:

• 189 players devote 825 lobbyists – 450 full-time equivalents (FTE) – and spend between €71.4 and €86.6 million a year to influence EU decisions.
• Between January 2018 and July 7th, 2020, EU officials held 310 meetings with gas and nuclear players, or 2.36 meetings a week. Since the publication of the final report excluding gas and nuclear from the taxonomy in March 2020, lobbyists and officials met 52 times. The frequency of these meetings increased after this report was published, from 2.28 to 2.86 times a week.
• The fossil gas lobby is especially vast and powerful. It gathers 167 entities that spend between €68.8 million and €82.9 million each year and devotes 759 employees—419 FTEs—to promoting the sector as a “bridge” energy.

Methodology: Data originates from the EU transparency register. For detailed methodology see the full briefing.