Germany tells France: ‘nuclear is not green’ via euobserver

By WESTER VAN GAAL

“Germany will oppose French efforts to label nuclear electricity as green energy,” Germany’s new foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said in Paris on Thursday.

It was her first full day of work and first official visit to a foreign capital since taking office this week.

Europe is “the heart of German foreign policy. A strong Europe needs strong Franco-German relations,” she said, amid Russian threats and a worsening crisis at the Ukrainian border.

Yet the debate about so-called taxonomy – the green labelling system for investors – currently being developed by the European Commission was one of the issues that took centre stage.

Baerbock, who also served as co-leader of the Greens since 2018, said that “no crisis poses more of a threat to humanity than the climate crisis.”

“It is well known that we have differing positions on the nuclear issue,” she added after meeting French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Along with a group of at least 12 EU member states, France aims to include nuclear and gas as ‘green’ investments, while Germany opposes atomic energy but is dependent on gas.

On 22 December, the European Commission is likely to unveil investment rules for nuclear and gas, which has become one of the hottest environmental debates in the EU.

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