EU court rules nuclear energy is clean energy

Summary

Launching Dear Greenpeace back in 2023When I launched Dear Greenpeace with my fellow youth climate activists alongside WePlanet two years ago, I had no idea just how quickly the anti-nuclear dominoes would fall across Europe. In 2023, and what seems like a lifetime ago, Austria launched their legal action against the European Commission for the inclusion of nuclear energy in the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy. At the time they were supported by a bulwark of EU countries and environmental NGOs that opposed nuclear energy. Honestly, it looked like they might win.But today, that whole landscape has changed.Germany, long a symbol of anti-nuclear politics, is beginning to shift. The nuclear phase-outs or bans in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, and Italy are now history. Even Fridays for Future has quietened its opposition, and in some places, embraced nuclear power.It shows what’s possible when we stick to the science. The evidence only gets clearer by the day that nuclear energy has an extremely low environmental impact across its lifecycle, and strong regulations and safety culture ensure that it remains one of the safest forms of energy available to humanity. The European Court of Justice has now fully dismissed Austria’s lawsuit. That ruling doesn’t just uphold nuclear energy’s place in EU green finance rules. It also signals a near-certain defeat for the ongoing Greenpeace case – the very lawsuit that inspired me to launch Dear Greenpeace in the first place.But instead of learning from this, Greenpeace is doubling down. Martin Kaiser, Executive Director of Greenpeace Germany, called the court decision “a dark day for the climate”.Let that sink in. The highest court in the EU just reaffirmed that nuclear energy meets the scientific and environmental standards to be included in sustainable finance, and Greenpeace still refuses to budge.Meanwhile, the climate crisis gets worse. Global emissions are not falling fast enough. Billions of people still lack...