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‘Please don’t betray us’: Ukrainians call on EU Parliament to reject green label for gas and nuclear
(EurActiv, 30 Jun 2022) Ukrainian activists and politicians have urged the European Parliament to reject plans to label nuclear and gas as ‘green’ investments, saying this would be a “gift to Putin”.
Note: this article has been updated with quotes from the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany and further details about Russian-made nuclear power plants across EU countries.
The inclusion of “gas and nuclear in the EU taxonomy is a very clear gift to Putin to feed his war machine against Ukrainians,” said Svitlana Romanko, an environmental lawyer and campaign leader at Stand With Ukraine, an activist group.
The proposal to include gas in the EU’s sustainable finance taxonomy risks increasing the EU’s dependency on Russian gas and could sabotage efforts to cut dependency on Russian fossil fuel imports, she added.
“MEPs have to veto the EU taxonomy delegated act because it violates the human rights of Ukrainians, which are still under huge abuse with the Russian war against Ukraine,” she told EURACTIV.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany Andrij Melnyk wrote an open letter to German lawmakers, calling on them to reject the proposal.
“For Russia’s gas industry, the taxonomy would open up a ‘multitude of opportunities’, Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov happily declared,” reads the letter.
EurActiv, 30 Jun 2022: ‘Please don’t betray us’: Ukrainians call on EU Parliament to reject green label for gas and nuclear
