Legal action to prevent fossil gas from being included in the green taxonomy

European environmental organizations question the delegated act complementary to the taxonomy that was adopted before the summer and that gives gas a sustainable label and call for its revocation

European environmental organizations have initiated legal action to try to prevent fossil gas from being included in the European Union’s sustainable finance taxonomy.

ClientEarth, WWF’s European Policy Office, Transport & Environment (T&E) and BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) question the delegated act supplementing the taxonomy adopted before the summer that gives gas a sustainable label and call for its revocation.

Clashes with other EU laws

Specifically, they ensure that the delegated act clashes with other laws of the European Union, such as the Taxonomy Regulation itself and the European Climate Law, and consider that it does not respect the obligations of the European Union in the Paris Agreement. The NGOs consider that with this label there is a risk of channeling investments towards this source of energy that they describe as “harmful”, when it is a “priority” to invest in reducing energy demand and accelerating sustainable renewable energies.

“Supporting gas, a fossil fuel currently at the heart of a global cost of living crisis, undermines the EU’s fundamental aims for cleaner, cheaper and safer energy. To reduce people’s bills, secure energy supplies and protect citizens from climate chaos, the EU must stop the ‘greenwashing’ of gas in the EU taxonomy,” they say in a joint statement in which they ensure that this delegated act sends “the wrong signals”.

22 weeks to respond

In particular, the organizations have requested the internal review of this mechanism, something possible after the reform of the laws of access to justice of the European Union. Now the European Commission has 22 weeks to respond and if it rejects, the organizations will be able to ask the Court of Justice of the European Union to rule on it.

Source: Ecoavant