EU plans to label gas and nuclear plants as green risk misleading investors, experts warn
EU plans to label gas and nuclear plants as green investments risk causing confusion and misleading investors, expert advisors to the bloc have warned, after the proposal was rounded on by EU members last week.
Experts have called on EU legislators to rewrite the draft rules, which they say would label gas plants with relatively high emission gas plants and nuclear plants launched too late to help the bloc hit 2050 targets as green investments, Reuters reported today.
The specialist advisers’ criticism was leaked in a draft on Friday and said that the draft rules would make it hard for investors to assess which investments are truly climate friendly.
Nathan Fabian, chair of the expert advisory panel, told Reuters that the implication was that the market would not be able to interpret “what investments are truly aligned with the climate goals and which ones are not.”
“It would lead to misstatements in financial disclosures,” he said.
The advisers warned that the European Commission plans should instead require companies and financial product issuers to separate gas and nuclear investments in financial disclosures rather than being included with investments in areas like wind energy and electric vehicles.
The pushback follows a wave of criticism from groups representing more than 200 of the European Parliament’s 700 lawmaker who raised concerns over the plans.
The European Commission is attempting to finalise rules to define climate-friendly investments and is now due to publish a final proposal.