Climate policy

Question for written answer  E-006582/2020
to the Commission
Rule 138
Guido Reil (ID)

Regulation (EU) 2020/852 gives the Commission the power to determine, by means of delegated acts, what economic activities are to be considered sustainable or climate friendly. Member States have little scope to scrutinise such acts. Expert groups have an advisory role without voting rights. On 20 November 2020, the Commission published a draft act which incorporated the ‘world's first green list’ of so-called sustainable economic activities for private investors. This draft was presented to the Member States only a week before being published.

Business Europe has criticised the fact that new technological developments have not been properly taken into account and that the administrative burden is very high. The chemical industry has drawn attention to errors and ‘technical assumptions’. Moreover, nuclear energy was not included in the list, despite it being CO₂ neutral. The automotive industry, household appliance manufacturers and manufacturing industry in general are wondering whether they will have to include exact sustainability percentages in their advertising[1].

• 1.Why was the draft presented to the Member States only a week before being published?
• 2.How is the Commission responding to the criticism from Business Europe, the chemical industry and the automotive industry?
• 3.Why was nuclear energy not included in the list?

• [1] Daniel Guéguen: ‘The EU's green finance taxonomy: an Orwellian mechanism’, Euractiv.com, 20 November 2020.