The European Parliament has approved the EU Commission’s proposal to include nuclear and gas energy in the so-called EU taxonomy, thus classifying both energy sources as sustainable in the future. From 2023, the new financial market classification system is expected to apply, which is intended to boost investment in “green” energy sources.

The EU is thus creating considerable financial incentives to continue investing in energy technologies that are not fit for the future. These energy sources are not fit for the future for several reasons: They leave behind highly dangerous radioactive residues or emit climate-damaging greenhouse gases during their current use. Damage caused by nuclear waste is not reversible and irreversible processes are simply not something we can afford for a future worth living. For months, we have also been publicly discussing the dependence on gas imports from Russia, among other sources, that has been built up politically over decades, and we are looking for ways to end it. Now the EU is creating another systemic incentive to maintain this dependence. This is not a solution, but interest politics that does not aim at the long-term good of society.

With the Circular Economy Action Plan, the EU has proclaimed a closed-loop circular economy as a political goal, which must start with the circular and materially healthy design of products and processes. This is also exactly the right way to a future worth living. The EU taxonomy, a sensible instrument in itself, would have been ideally suited to channel money into truly sustainable energy solutions, such as a rapid expansion of safe, renewable energies from recyclable plants. This is because they counteract the climate and resource crisis, reduce import dependencies, and form the only sensible basis for a closed-loop economy.