Greta Thunberg, alongside a host of other climate extremists, has decried the possible inclusion of nuclear and gas in the EU’s green investment playbook.
The possible inclusion of nuclear and gas in an upcoming EU playbook for green investment has prompted outcry from climate activists, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who has accused the union of engaging in “fake climate action”.
Thunberg’s criticisms come about a month after she herself came under fire for acting in an “anti-democratic” manner during the U.N.’s COP26 climate summit, however.
Aimed at guiding investors towards green projects in-line with the European Union’s climate goals, The Guardian reports that the so-called “taxonomy for sustainable activities” is set to include both nuclear energy and gas as possible routes for investment
The two energy sources are reported to be included in the playbook via a so-called “amber” category, as opposed to the full-on green category, which includes wind and solar.
The decision is apparently in response to political pressure from nuclear states in the EU, such as France, as well as from gas reliant nations that lie mostly in Europe’s east.
Despite some analysts claiming that nuclear is a clean energy source that could help fight climate change, both its inclusion, as well as the inclusion of gas in the playbook, have been lambasted by Thunberg and co.
“As climate activists have been battling to ensure taxonomy paves the way for real climate action, the “leaders” have been working hard on rebranding fossil gas and nuclear power to “sustainable”, when they are neither sustainable nor green,” reads an opinion piece co-authored by the Swede. “This could turn into a real life climate-nightmare.”
“We are living in times of mounting crises, but especially because of that there is no space for cowardly decisions, like allowing for this fake climate action,” the article continues. “There is no wiggle room now for any decision that delays reaching real zero emissions.”
Green MEP Bas Eickhout has also come out against the inclusion of gas and nuclear, saying that their inclusion is not needed.
“If Europe now starts calling [gas] green then you can forget about the 1.5 degrees,” The Guardian reports the Dutch European representative as saying.
Thunberg’s criticism of the new EU playbook comes after she was previously accused of engaging in anti-democratic behaviour during a climate rally last month.
Speaking at a protest outside the annual UN climate conference in Glasgow, Thunberg said that the conference ultimately represented “business as usual”, and that those attending were merely there to create “loopholes to benefit themselves”.
“The people in power can continue to live in their bubble filled with their fantasies, like eternal growth on a finite planet and technological solutions that will suddenly appear seemingly out of nowhere and will erase all of these crises just like that,” Thunberg told her fellow protesters.
The Swedish activist’s comments prompted a response from a Norwegian newspaper editor, who accused the 18-year-old of creating a sense of polarisation.
“She risks leading them into something authoritarian, anti-democratic and downright dangerous,” Kjetil B. Alstadheim — the political editor of Norway’s highest-circulating newspaper — said. “Her rhetoric is just a ploy away from incitement to something beyond civil disobedience.”
Norway’s Climate Minister Espen Barth Eide also came out in criticism of Thunberg, saying that her past criticisms of politics were “slightly dangerous”.
“I believe that the strong and sensible commitment to make something happen must be converted into political action – not to reject the whole idea of democratic political change,” Eide said.
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