Four environmental groups are set to start legal action in an attempt to prevent the EU including fossil gas in its sustainable finance rulebook.
ClientEarth, WWF’s European Policy Office, Transport & Environment (T&E), and BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) argue that inclusion of gas in its environmental classification framework is “unlawful” as it clashes with a “number of key EU laws”, including the “legal basis of the taxonomy itself”.
The WWF and T&E were two of the five NGOs which walked out of platform for sustainable finance meeting in protest at gas and nuclear inclusion in taxonomy, delivering a “blow to its credibility”.
A spokesperson for the groups said: “Propping up gas, a fossil fuel which is currently at the centre of a cost-of-living crisis across the bloc, undermines the EU’s fundamental aims of achieving cleaner, cheaper and more secure energy.”
“To bring down people’s bills, secure energy supplies and protect citizens from climate chaos, the EU needs to stop greenwashing gas as ‘sustainable’ in the EU Taxonomy.”
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