The Grohnde Nuclear Power Plant in Emmerthal, northern Germany. Austria complained in an EU court that its a stretch to characterize nuclear power as a clean source of energy. Photo by Focke Strangmann/EPA-EFE
Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Classifying nuclear power and natural gas as clean energy is misleading and counter to efforts to create a carbon-neutral economy, the Austrian government said in a legal challenge to the European Union.
Austria on Friday filed a lawsuit in the European Court of Justice over the classification used to define clean energy resources. Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler took to her official Twitter account to complain the clean classification of nuclear power and natural gas does nothing to address climate change.
Calling "climate-damaging" natural gas green, she said, is misleading, it undermines the credibility of Europe's energy taxonomy system and is bad for the environment.
Austria's complaint rests on 16 separate arguments, according to a review of the filing by the Bloomberg news agency. The claims range from concerns about the sustainability of nuclear power to the potential climate threat posed by natural gas, a fossil fuel.
"There was no public consultation (on the taxonomy)," she said, according to Bloomberg.
Natural gas is seen as a bridge fuel to a cleaner future, though it's still polluting. Methane, the main component of natural gas, has far more warming potential than carbon dioxide.
Meanwhile, the widespread contamination that resulted from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011 prompted a global rethink on the safety of nuclear power. But with most major economies of the European Union scrambling to source energy from anyplace but Russia due to war concerns, nuclear power is back on the table.
Austria relies primarily on hydroelectric power for most of its energy needs.
Alexander Van der Bellen won reelection as Austria's president on Sunday. The former leader of the Green Party was elected to his first term as president in 2016 and has since led the country through the COVID-19 pandemic and the hit to the nation's economy from the war in Ukraine.
