Holding politicians accountable for the “olive” taxonomy
Brussels, Bucharest, Edinburgh – 20 September 2022
In October 2020, Agent Green, represented by Dr Theodor Cojoianu, was appointed to the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance as one of its 57 elected members. Since then, the organisation has contributed to several important outputs of the EU Platform, including the Platform’s response to the Complementary Delegated Act (PDF, in English), in which we recommended to the Commission that gas and nuclear energy should not be eligible for a green label under the EU taxonomy.
Given the Platform’s clear opposition to including fossil gas in the taxonomy, Agent Green was surprised to see a recent article in Responsible Investor claiming that there had been political interference by the Commission in the Platform, citing a meeting in March 2022. The organisation is also surprised that the anonymous contributors to the article, likely the five NGOs that resigned from the Platform, blamed Commission officials in their departure statement instead of the politicians responsible for the Complementary Delegated Act.
Agent Green wishes to stress that the initiator of the proposal to include fossil gas and nuclear energy in the taxonomy was Pascal Canfin, the former Director General of WWF France. The proposal was then supported by Emmanuel Macron, who, in exchange for including nuclear energy in the taxonomy, promised Eastern Europe that gas could be labelled green. They are indeed the main people responsible for the political interference in taxonomy legislation, rather than European Commission officials.
“We would have welcomed the quitting NGO community to emphasise the politicians responsible, not EU civil servants working tirelessly to make the legislation work in practice. We would have also welcomed WWF France to heavily criticize Mr. Canfin as its former CEO for such a damaging proposal for the environment. None of these happened to our knowledge,” said Theodor Cojoianu.
Agent Green has chosen to remain in the EU Platform for the final month of its mandate precisely because the 57 elected members (now 52) have the opportunity to express their independent views in the Platform’s documents, regardless of whether politicians agree with its recommendations.
