The UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, has announced that nuclear power will be classified as “environmentally sustainable” under the country’s upcoming green taxonomy. This will mean that nuclear will have access to the same investment incentives provided for renewable energy to encourage private investment. Hunt said nuclear would provide a “critical source of cheap and reliable energy” and that “increasing nuclear capacity is vital to meet our Net Zero obligations.” The UK’s Taxonomy initiative was initiated in 2020 to provide a common framework for determining which activities can be considered environmentally sustainable and to improve understanding of the impact of firms’ activities and investments on the environment while supporting the transition to a sustainable economy. The regulation was initially planned to be passed into law in late 2022 but has been delayed until at least later this year. While sustainable investment and finance groups welcomed the budget’s climate-focused measures, they criticised Hunt for not going further to drive the UK’s net zero efforts or addressing the need to respond to major clean energy and industry packages launched by the US and EU.
resource: https://www.esgtoday.com/uk-classifies-nuclear-as-environmentally-sustainable-in-green-taxonomy/