Portugal against nuclear energy: ‘It’s not safe and costs a lot of money’
Including nuclear and natural gas in Taxonomy is an old taboo. Now the EU wants to label them as 'green'. To the ECO, minister Matos Fernandes says that Portugal is against nuclear energy.
The European Commission decided in early 2022 to start analysing to what extent certain activities linked to the electricity production from nuclear energy and natural gas can be considered “green” and necessary for the energy transition and carbon neutrality in 30 years. From Portugal, the answer was not long in coming.
To ECO/Capital Verde, the minister for the environment and climate action, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, made clear his opinion on this move from Brussels: nuclear power no, natural gas yes, but only with new infrastructures that in the future can supply central and northern Europe with renewable gases, such as green hydrogen that Portugal aims to produce and export in large quantities.
“Recent times prove that only a commitment to renewable energies can defend Europe from high electricity production prices. These energies – the renewable ones – are the ones that should be included in the taxonomy,” said the minister.
Recently, on the sidelines of the 26th United Nations Climate Conference (COP26), countries such as Germany, Portugal, Luxembourg, Austria and Denmark presented a joint declaration defending a nuclear-free “taxonomy” of EU energy projects.
“It is a poor decision to put nuclear within the European taxonomy. It is not safe, it is not sustainable and it costs a lot of money. All the money you put into nuclear power is definitely the money you should put into renewable energy and that’s what the world needs. We need energy, but that doesn’t come from fossil [fuels]. And we need energy that does not have nuclear waste”, stressed Matos Fernandes, repeating what he had already said in Glasgow.
As for natural gas, the conversation is different and the government has “insisted that Europe and Portugal need renewable gas transport infrastructures”. From the Portuguese point of view, there is a clear interest in green hydrogen.
“In order to supply the central part of Europe, these infrastructures will have to be built as soon as possible, and this construction is of national and European interest. Therefore, Portugal defends the inclusion in the taxonomy of infrastructures that serve to transport renewable gases, even if, temporarily, these are only viable, from an economic point of view, if they transport natural gas, “concluded Matos Fernandes in a statement to ECO.
