by Matina Stevis-Gridneff at The New York Times
In a landmark vote for Europe’s climate and energy policies, lawmakers said on Wednesday that some gas and nuclear energy projects should be considered “green” and receive access to cheap loans and even state subsidies.
A European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg, France, voted in favor of accepting a proposal by the European Commission, the E.U. executive, with 328 votes backing the proposal and 278 against.
Both inside the parliamentary chambers and outside the building, detractors of the policy booed in protest.
The commission’s proposal to label gas and nuclear as “green” is part of a broader new E.U. law that classifies various types of energy investments as environmentally friendly, and lays out detailed rules on how to assess them.
The policy, known as the “taxonomy,” is meant to stop “greenwashing,” the pervasive practice of mislabeling energy projects as environmentally friendly. It would also give the bloc, which brings together 27 industrialized and wealthy nations, added wiggle room as it scrambles to replace Russian energy sources in its effort to penalize the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine this year.
But the classification remains controversial…