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EU’s dependence on fossil fuels funding war – Greenpeace

(Montel) The EU’s dependence on “fossil gas and nuclear energy actively contributes to war and human rights violations”, environmental group Greenpeace said in a new report published on Tuesday. 

Russia currently supplied 45% of Europe’s gas and 20% of its enriched uranium, it added, though the EU had pledged to sanction the former.

The bloc has imported about EUR 22bn of fossil fuels per month from Russia since the latter invaded Ukraine on 24 February.

“Russia also provides technical maintenance services at 18 Russian-designed nuclear power plants in the EU, mostly in central and eastern Europe,” said the group’s French arm.

“[It] stores vast quantities of the EU’s radioactive waste, including waste produced in countries such as France, Germany and Bulgaria. 

To date, imports of Russian gas, gas turbines, uranium and other nuclear services had been exempted from the sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia in response to its war in Ukraine.

“The European Commission has proposed to ban Russian firms from hiring EU lobbying and public relations firms in the future but this has not yet been approved by EU governments.”

Russian influence

Greenpeace made the above comment in light of the fact that it said, “Russian energy firms Gazprom, Lukoil and Rosatom used lobbying to influence the inclusion of fossil gas and nuclear energy in the EU taxonomy of sustainable investments”.

The research also found Russia was set to be one of the main beneficiaries of the planned addition of gas and nuclear to the EU’s list of such investments.

According to the report, the country could earn an extra EUR 4bn/year from a taxonomy-aligned expansion of gas capacity.

“The inclusion of nuclear energy in the taxonomy would allow Rosatom to secure a share of an estimated EUR 500bn of potential investment in new EU nuclear capacity,” said Greenpeace. 

The research revealed Russian energy companies had met EU officials at least 18 times since the European Commission published its action plan on sustainable finance in March 2018.