- Taxonomy: France’s plea for miniature nuclear power plants
- Chat control: old topic sparks new outrage
- COP26: Several countries sign energy partnership with South Africa
- Climate protection: Germany criticizes China for insufficient pledges
- OECD study: poorest countries suffer the most from climate change
- Gates and von der Leyen launch green investment program
- Methane pact: over 100 countries sign on
- Facebook wants to switch off facial recognition
- Profile: Ursula Pachl from BEUC
France’s reliance on nuclear energy is nothing new. However, what is new is how President Macron is currently repeating as a mantra the role of that controversial form of energy for the deindustrialization of his country and the energy transition. “Small Modular Reactors” is the magic phrase that is supposed to take the wind out of the sails of nuclear energy’s opponents. Charlotte Wirth analyses the real potential behind mini-nuclear power plants, why times seem good for nuclear power, and Germany’s position in the taxonomy debate.
By contrast, times are indisputably bad for coal power. On the third day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Germany, together with the rest of the EU, the UK, and the US, agreed on an energy partnership with South Africa to help the country phase out this climate-damaging form of energy. On why the issue of climate finance remains contentious, Timo Landenberger has the details.
Chat control – that sounds like traffic control and could be similarly popular. However, a wave in social media has now flushed the topic into public attention, as even the Bild newspaper reported. Why there is more than activism behind it and what regulatory conflicts the topic reveals at the EU level – Falk Steiner reports.
Jasmin Kohl
Feature
Taxonomy: France’s plea for miniature nuclear power plants
“Reinventing nuclear power” is how Emmanuel Macron described his vision of France’s energy transition in October. Nuclear energy plays a central role in his “France 2030” plan for the reindustrialization of the country: The French president wants to invest €1 billion in the promotion of small nuclear reactors, so-called “Small Modular Reactors“. At the same time, Paris is planning to build six new pressurized water reactors.
What is new is the intensity with which Macron is defending this line six months before the presidential elections. Hardly any of the president’s speeches are currently without the buzzword “nucléaire”. Nuclear power has become the miracle solution for achieving the EU’s climate goals. The economic survival of the French energy company EDF, which is primarily owned by the state, is also at stake.
But for France to mobilize the necessary funds to implement the vision of the new nuclear turnaround, it needs one thing above all: a green label. This explains why Macron is fighting so hard to have nuclear power included in the taxonomy for sustainable investments. After France was isolated with its vision in the Council for a long time, rising gas prices are providing new arguments.
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