Paris, November 1, 2021 – A note containing proposals (1) for the inclusion of gas and nuclear in the taxonomy was sent to the European Commission on Friday, October 29, 2021. According to several sources (2), France played a central role in its drafting and allied itself with the European countries least inclined to act on climate. The Commission, other Member States and the European Parliament must reject these proposals if they want to ensure the credibility of the taxonomy (3) and the EU’s sustainable finance strategy.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div> Journalist Anne Hubert of the news website Contexte<\/u><\/a> tweeted that the document in question is the work of \u00ab\u00a0France and a number of other EU countries\u00a0\u00bb who are trying to \u00ab\u00a0force the hand of the European Commission\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n There were already suspicions about France’s role. In September, the French ambassador to the Czech Republic praised on twitter<\/a><\/u> the Franco-Czech alliance and its work for the inclusion of gas and nuclear in the taxonomy.<\/p>\n<\/div> Proposals at odds with EU climate objectives<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/p><\/h2><\/span> If this undermining succeeds, Europe will have a \u00ab\u00a0green taxonomy\u00a0\u00bb that will block – rather than contribute to – the alignment of financial flows with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, according to the NGO Reclaim Finance.<\/p>\n In this case, many investors, both institutional and retail, will refuse to trust products aligned with the taxonomy. The investor group UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI) has already warned of the \u00ab\u00a0risks of tarnishing investor confidence.\u00a0\u00bb The well-established practice in the green bond market is not to include fossil fuels or nuclear power. The French Greenfin label – like several other international environmental labels – excludes nuclear.<\/p>\n At a time when it is crucial to mobilize the savings of European citizens to finance the transition, the Germans, but also the French, are mostly opposed to the development of nuclear power. Taxonomy is a central part of the European Union’s sustainable finance strategy. Its discrediting and unscientific nature would ruin the effectiveness of other financial tools that would refer to it. By qualifying activities such as gas – a fossil fuel (4) – as sustainable, the taxonomy would become a greenwashing tool, even though it was intended to limit these risks.<\/p>\n \u00ab\u00a0As the most important climate summit of the decade gets underway, France is scheming to include fossil gas and nuclear power in the taxonomy, putting its nuclear industry ahead of the climate emergency. We strongly condemn this undermining, which, if successful, will be the death of a key piece of the European Union’s sustainable finance strategy. These actions are destroying the reputation that France built 6 years ago with the COP21. A few months before the French Presidency of the European Union, they do not augur well for France’s ability to decarbonize finance to make it a tool to reach European and international climate objectives. \u00a0\u00bb comments Lucie Pinson, Director of Reclaim Finance.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> Press contacts:<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Lucie Pinson, director, lucie@reclaimfinance.org<\/a>, +33 (6)79543715<\/p>\n Angus Satow, press officer, angus@reclaimfinance.org,<\/a> +447847754046<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> Notes:<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\nFrance is calling the shots<\/strong><\/h1><\/span>
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