Austria seeks allies for legal challenge to EU green investment rules

Austria said on October 10, 2022  it was seeking to enlist other European Union countries to support its legal action against Brussels for labelling investment in gas and nuclear power as "green". Vienna on Friday filed a legal challenge against the EU's inclusion of the energy sources on a list of climate-friendly investments, which exposed deep rifts between countries over which energy sources to use to meet climate change goals. Austria's legal action, submitted to the EU's general court, makes 16 arguments for why Brussels should annul the rules - including that nuclear energy cannot meet a requirement to "do no significant harm" to the environment because of concerns about radioactive waste. The EU's so-called taxonomy is a rulebook defining which investments can be labelled climate friendly, designed to guide investors towards green projects that will help achieve the bloc's emissions-cutting targets. The European Commission proposed the law in February, after more than a year of intense lobbying. Some central and eastern EU countries had argued gas investments should be inventivised to help them quit more carbon-intensive coal, while states including France see low-carbon nuclear energy as key to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.