nucleareurope highlights importance of sustainable finance taxonomy for nuclear at IAEA webinar

On 25 June, nucleareurope Communications and Advocacy Director Jessica Johnson presented key takeaways from the inclusion of nuclear in the sustainable finance taxonomy during an IAEA webinar on nuclear project financing. The webinar gathered close to 100 participants, and included interventions from the World Nuclear Association and EDF, in addition to nucleareurope.

During her intervention, Jessica insisted on the importance of the sustainable finance taxonomy file for nuclear project financing. She explained that the taxonomy is the document outlining which technologies the EU institutions consider sustainable, and detailed how the inclusion of nuclear in the taxonomy can lead to investments in nuclear: firstly, this inclusion is important as companies have to report on whether they are taxonomy compliant or not, encouraging investment for technologies listed in the document. Secondly, it provides a long-term vision – an essential factor for the financing of nuclear projects, which come with high levels of upfront capital cost but provide long-term return on investments.

“The inclusion of nuclear in the sustainable finance taxonomy is certainly a success for the sector. But it will be reviewed in the future, and there are still some areas for improvement” said Jessica, listing the different amendments advocated for by the nuclear sector:

• The categorisation of nuclear as a “sustainable technology” on an equal footing with renewables, as opposed to its current categorisation as a “transitional technology”
• The removal of sunset clauses for nuclear projects
• An ambitious but coherent approach to some technical screening criteria
• The inclusion of investments in nuclear projects outside of the EU, as is currently the case for other technologies.

“With opinions on nuclear evolving across Europe and with the next Commission potentially making industrial competitiveness one of its priorities, we hope that nuclear will be included more positively in policy files such as the taxonomy” concluded Jessica, highlighting the importance of nuclear for the EU’s industrial competitiveness, along with its sustainable nature.

The full recording of the webinar can be found here: https://www.iaea.org/about/organizational-structure/department-of-nuclear-energy/division-of-nuclear-power/webinar-on-financing-nuclear-projects-sector-specific-esg-criteria