The scheme is tried and tested. First, a laudable objective is set; then, it is carefully explained, and everyone agrees. But once the law is approved, it serves other purposes. Baffling but hardly surprising.
In 2021 the EU Green Taxonomy meant to provide clarity on what is truly environmentally sustainable and what is not. An antidote to greenwashing and its obstacles to sustainable development, as the European Union races towards the goal of climate neutrality by 2025.
However, one year later, through some verbal and legal contortions, Gas and Nuclear were added to the list as “transitional sources”.What impact will gas and nuclear power have on the decarbonisation of the European economy: crutch, road speed bumper or knockout? Important but no crucial. The most critical point is the loss of credibility of the European Commission’s overall policies and the subsequent impact on all the sustainable development measures already in place.
Ursula von der Leyen and her allies seem not to realise – or at least not to care – that what is at stake is not only the integrity of the European Union but of its very raison d’être: to represent a model of peace and economic development and vanguard for eco-sustainability in the interest of today’s and tomorrow’s generations.
A reputation built over more than 70 years by a continent that has on its conscience most of the bloodiest exterminations the world has seen and the start of the most unbridled pollution in the 18th century. Since its inception, the European Union has sought to demonstrate its overall redemption and establish itself as a positive leader.
Something has changed. Now, in Brussels, we still have those who try to build but also those who dismantle in the name of simplification and business competitiveness. What’s at stake? Throwing in the bin regulations that represent the heart of the Green Deal: the directives on due diligence (CSDD) and corporate sustainability reporting (CSRD), the rules on Taxonomy (yes, again) and Sustainable Finance Disclosure (SFDR). Doubts? Ask Roberta Metsola and the whole Parliament after being cut off from having a word on the EU rearmament funding designed by Ursula von der Leyen.
In the European Commission’s recent policy, the trick, the exception and the oxymore are increasingly the new modus operandi. Talk about green fossil fuels or arms for peace.
Gianni Serra
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By: ONE Editor
Italian professional journalist. ONE Editor in Chief and Sotacarbo Director of Communications and International Relations.
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