Europe Calls Gas and Nuclear Energy ‘Green’ – The New York Times

Source: Europe Calls Gas and Nuclear Energy ‘Green’ – The New York Times

In a landmark vote for Europe’s climate and energy policies, the European Parliament on Wednesday endorsed labeling some gas and nuclear energy projects as “green,” allowing them access to hundreds of billions of euros in cheap loans and even state subsidies.

The decision placed the European Union’s heavy thumb on the scale of a global debate about how and how quickly major industrialized economies can move from their heavy reliance on fossil fuels — and it immediately proved controversial, prompting boos from opponents inside and outside the parliamentary building in Strasbourg, France.

Critics said it would lock in and prolong Europe’s reliance on fossil fuels, while the measure’s proponents, including in the European Commission, the E.U. executive arm that drafted it, said it was part of a pragmatic approach to the transition to renewable energy, especially as Europe seeks to wean itself off Russian fuel imports in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine…

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These goals, and the means to achieve them over the next few decades, are key to Europe’s efforts to lead the world on climate policy. But Europe’s decision to classify gas and nuclear energy as “green” is now likely to reverberate widely and could also undercut European efforts to coax other countries, like China, to rein in their own emissions, analysts said.

The new classification for gas is likely to make it far harder to meet a climate goal championed at the last international climate negotiations: cutting methane.

Methane is more potent in its ability to warm the planet than carbon dioxide emissions, although it breaks down in the atmosphere sooner. Over 20 years, it can create 80 times as much warming as the same amount of carbon dioxide.

In short, cutting methane emissions would slow down warming more quickly, which is the argument that the European Union itself used when it joined the United States last November in announcing a global pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030.

Prominent nongovernmental organizations including WWF and Greenpeace said they planned to litigate against the E.U. labeling of gas and nuclear, and European lawmakers are also expected to sue the European Commission over its handling of the policy…