Court rules Europe can call nuclear and natural gas sustainable
investments for its green transition
[September 12, 2025] By
JENNIFER McDERMOTT
Nuclear energy and natural gas will still be considered environmentally
sustainable investments in the European Union following a court ruling
Wednesday, potentially driving massive amounts of financing toward
projects that are not widely considered “green.”
Austria had sued the European Commission, the bloc's executive, over the
inclusion of gas and nuclear in the EU's classification system for
environmentally sustainable economic activities. The system helps direct
investments to the projects that are most needed to cut planet-warming
greenhouse gas emissions.
The General Court at the European Court of Justice on Thursday ruled in
favor of the commission, dismissing Austria's action.
Nuclear power is a carbon-free source of electricity but it is not
typically labeled as green energy, like solar, wind and other renewables.
Generating power this way requires mining and processing uranium to
create nuclear fuel, an energy-intensive process that produces
emissions.
Nuclear reactors generate radioactive waste and there’s a risk of
accidents. Natural, or fossil, gas has lower carbon emissions than coal,
but it still warms the planet when burned to produce electricity.
The commission said that the court confirmed the legality of the way the
sustainability criteria were set. European companies are increasingly
using the classification system to plan their green investments totaling
hundreds of billions of euros, according to the commission.
The European Union aims to be “climate-neutral" by 2050, an economy
where the amount of greenhouse gases produced is no more than the amount
removed from the atmosphere. The European Parliament and the Council of
the European Union established a framework in 2020 to direct investment
in ways that help mitigate or adapt to climate change.
In 2022, the European Commission adopted a regulation to include certain
activities in the nuclear energy and fossil gas sectors, as transitional
ways to accelerate progress to climate neutrality. It was an
acknowledgement of how countries have different energy mixes and were at
different starting points in deploying renewables at scale.
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Austria sought to have that regulation annulled. Leonore Gewessler filed
the suit in 2022 while serving as Austria’s environment minister because
she said the regulation was “opening the door to the greenwashing of
climate-harming and dangerous technologies.” Austria does not have any
operational nuclear power plants.
Luxembourg supported Austria's case. The commission was supported by
Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Poland, Romania,
Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.
The court found that the commission did not exceed its authority by
including nuclear energy and gas. The court endorsed the view that
economic activities in the nuclear energy and gas sectors can, under
certain conditions, contribute substantially to climate change
mitigation and adaptation.
The Brussels-based trade association for the nuclear energy industry in
Europe, “nucleareurope,” said being in the taxonomy can help encourage
private investments in nuclear projects.
Now the parliamentary leader of the Austrian Greens, Gewessler called on
the Austrian government to appeal. She said an enormous amount of
funding is at stake, which should go into safe renewables, not into
risky and costly reactors.
“This ruling sends a disastrous signal to the entire EU,” Gewessler said
in a statement Wednesday. “If this decision stands, it undermines a
fundamental principle: where it says green, it is no longer truly green.
Those seeking green investments may end up supporting nuclear power or
dirty gas.”
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AP writer Sam McNeil contributed to this report from Brussels.
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