Recently, new EU regulations for nuclear and gas-related activities with the EU Taxonomy regulation were defined by the EU Commission. These new regulations, captured in the Complementary Climate Delegated Act, have already been included in the Envoria software. In less than two months, 287 new criteria have been integrated, and available in all official EU languages.
The Complementary Climate Delegated Act of 02.02.2022 introduces nuclear and gas-related business activities into the EU Taxonomy and therefore classifies these activities as consistent with EU climate and environmental objectives under the condition of compliance with certain requirements.
Nuclear energy and gas as transitional activities
According to the EU Commission, one reason for the new classification of nuclear and gas activities is to have stable sources that help accelerate the transition towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonization. Therefore, the Complementary Climate Delegated Act includes certain nuclear and gas activities in the second category of activities. This second category includes so-called transitional activities covered by Article 10(2) of the Taxonomy Regulation. The EU Commission defines transitional activities as "activities that cannot yet be replaced by technologically and economically feasible low-carbon alternatives". According to the EU Commission, these could, under certain conditions, support the transition toward a climate-neutral economy in line with EU climate goals. Under certain conditions, nuclear and gas-related business activities are thus compliant with the EU Taxonomy.
Stricter disclosure requirements
The new Delegated Act also tightens disclosure requirements for large listed non-financial and financial companies. Accordingly, they are required to disclose the share of their activities related to natural gas and nuclear energy in order to increase transparency for investors.