weCARE
weCARE
weCARE is a Brussels-based alliance of European NGOs standing for Clean, Affordable and Reliable Energy.
ID: 473723535459-78
Lobbying Activity
Response to Nuclear Illustrative Programme
2 May 2025
It will be important that the PINC fully integrates all pillars of the energy policy (environment/decarbonisation, economics/affordability, security/reliability of supply), and considers the societal sustainability from the global energy mix perspective, and not solely the nuclear element. Indeed reports by NEA (System Costs 2019 - based on MIT 2018) have shown that, for countries with a climate typical from western Europe, the penetration of intermittent renewables has to be limited if the economics is properly considered - full costs of the management of the intermitency have to be put on the shoulders of those producing them. And going further into deep decabonisation renders the problem even bigger. Such a full system costs analysis has to be done as the first priority, before and leading to, in a second stage, the definition of targets for nuclear capacities. In a third stage, conducive frameworks and means have to be set up to make things happen on the ground.
Read full responseMeeting with Philippe Lamberts (Principal Adviser Inspire, Debate, Engage and Accelerate Action)
10 Apr 2025 · Situation de l'industrie du nucléaire en Europe et son rôle dans la transition vers un système énergétique bas-carbone
Response to Mid-term evaluation of the ERDF, the CF and the JTF 2021-2027
24 Sept 2023
At many occasions in the past, weCARE complained about the exclusion of nuclear energy from most of the EU financing mechanisms and instruments. This was due to the green driven policy of the EU on energy matters. The energy crisis rings the bell for a change, as we can see it with the launch of the Alliance of pro-nuclear Member States. It is time that nuclear energy is treated on equal footing with the other very low carbon sources of energy and benefits from the same right of access to the EU funding means. The three funds covered by this consultation should be amended accordingly.
Read full response19 Jul 2022
Il est temps de réaliser que le recours inconsidéré aux Energies Renouvelables Intermittentes (éolien et solaire - EnRIs) mène l'Union Européenne dans le mur. Du fait de leur intermittence, elles exigent le recours massif à des solutions de backup - le plus souvent du gaz, ce qui est désastreux en terme de changement climatique, de sécurité d'approvisionnement et de coût. Les solutions de stockage-déstockage n'en sont qu'à leurs premiers balbutiements industriels. Bien trop tôt donc pour juger de la viabilité économique et donc sociétale de cette combinaison. Il faut inverser la tendance en limitant la pénétration des EnRIs (limite supérieure à mettre dans les textes au lieu de proposer des cibles croissantes à atteindre). Un ordre de grandeur de l'ordre de 30% à ne pas dépasser semble approprié au vu d'études sérieuses (OCDE, MIT,...)
En conséquence il ne FAUT pas autoriser de bypasser les moyens qu'ont les citoyens de commenter les projets d'implantation des EnRIs et leur permettre les recours en justice qui sont prévus dans les lois et par les Conventions Internationales (telle Aarhus).
De façon à contribuer positivement à la fourniture d'électricité décarbonée, tout en maitrisant les couts et en assurant la sécurité d'approvisionnement, il faudrait que la Commission et l'Union Européenne s'empressent de promulguer des textes législatifs facilitant le recours à l'énergie nucléaire, d'abord pour la prolongation de durée de vie des centrales existantes, et ensuite pour la construction de centrales de nouvelle génération. Cette énergie a été reconnue comme durable ce 11 juillet par le Conseil et le 6 juillet par le Parlement Européen.
Read full responseResponse to Climate change mitigation and adaptation taxonomy
13 Dec 2020
weCARE input replying to the Public Consultation on the Delegated Acts
TAXONOMY Sustainable Financing
First weCARE would like, once more, to flag that the concept of “sustainability” used in the frame of the Taxonomy for Sustainable Financing is short sighted and does not embrace the broad aspects of societal sustainability. Equalling sustainability with environment protection, or even worse, with “green”, is by far too limiting. Sustainability, particularly when it comes to energy, is the result of a sound balance between environment protection AND economics AND reliability of supply. Energy must be clean, affordable and reliable for the wellbeing of the society of today and not penalizing for the society of tomorrow. Besides checking each individual source of energy versus this triangle of criteria (environment, economics, reliability), the global integrated energy system has also to be analysed using the same set of criteria, based on a lifecycle assessment.
Doing so would provide a much more solid basis to select areas where to invest, particularly when it comes to EU public funding – in fact European citizens taxpayers money – at a time when the Covid crisis has not yet shown its full negative economic, and so social, impact. The EU Summit of 11 December 2020 has agreed the target of 55% GHG reduction for 2030. This is tomorrow. It corresponds to a reduction of GHG emissions of 8 % per year on average, roughly what covid did in 2020 with its economic consequences, while it took us 30 years to reduce by 20%. To match this ambitious but necessary goal, all decarbonised energy sources of energy must be considered on equal footing, using the wider concept of sustainability of the energy system described above.
Today nuclear energy, while recognised as fully decarbonised by the TEG, is not included into the ongoing process of the Delegated Acts – pending further analysis of its compliance with the DNSH criteria. This induces an imbalance and unfair competition at the critical time when EU funds (under the EU Budget and Next Generation EU, also approved by the EU Summit of 11 December) will soon start to be allocated to low carbon energy projects, since 30% of the EU Budget needs to be Green Deal compliant.
There is evidence that the Taxonomy, even flawed and incomplete as it is, will be used, as of now, to select projects to benefit from EU funding. weCARE therefore asks the Commission to adapt the Delegated Acts to ensure that nuclear projects are explicitly included for potential financial support, on the same footing as other very low carbon sources of energy, aiming for less than 50 gr CO2/KWh. This would be coherent with the promotional dimension of the Euratom Treaty, supportive to Member States wanting to rely on nuclear energy as per the Art 194 of the Lisbon Treaty. It would also comply with the recommendation of the International Energy Agency In-Depth Energy Review of the EU, published in June 2020, asking to have better coherence between EU energy policy documents (ia the EU energy backbones of the 2018 Clean Planet for All) and the implementing tools (ia Financing Instruments).
13 December 2020
weCARE
https://www.wecareeu.org
Read full responseResponse to Climate change mitigation and adaptation taxonomy
26 Apr 2020
WeCARE shares the objective of the EU Green Deal to reach carbon neutrality in 2050. To make it happen, an ambitious decarbonization target will have to be set for 2030.
Focusing on the Energy sector, where a major decarbonization effort is at reach, we want to recall the words used by Commissioner Canete on 28 November 2018:
First, the European energy system will need to decarbonise. By 2050, 80% of electricity will be coming from renewable energy sources. Together with nuclear power, this will be the backbone of a carbon-free European power system.
Today, more than 100 European nuclear power plants are delivering a quarter of the electricity consumed in the EU. The 2016 EC PINC estimates that, over time for the decades to come, the number of nuclear plants in the EU will stay rather stable.
As per the Lisbon Treaty, it is the prerogative of the Member States to decide on their energy mix. We know that views of the Member States are diverging a lot, and even opposing, when it comes to the recourse to nuclear power. We realise that this makes the task of the European Commission difficult.
Because nuclear energy is the most decarbonized way to produce electricity, together with wind power (five times less than solar power and fifty times less than natural gas) weCARE does not see how nuclear energy could be excluded from Sustainable Financing.
We believe there is a fundamental weakness, even a flaw, in the way “Sustainability” is defined in the discussions at EU level, particularly during the last months on the issue of the Sustainable Financing Taxonomy. The very origin of the problem is the univoqual link made between sustainability and environment (protection) – or even worse, the notion of “green”.
For us, sustainability is more complex and we prefer to use the historical Bruntlandt concept, putting society in the center and not (solely) environment: Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
For energy, this brings us to the notion of “Societal Sustainability” of the energy mix, going well beyond the limited “Environmental Sustainability”, and being based on the three pillars of a sound energy policy. We agree that one pillar is indeed environment protection, but the two others, as much important, are economics/affordability, and security/reliability of energy supply.
This “Societal Sustainability” of the energy mix must be evaluated at the global energy system level, beyond the sustainability characteristics of the individual energy sources composing the mix, because we know the interactions between these components. This is particularly true for electricity where the sources of production are interacting via the network (including storage means or other vectors) and via the electricity market. A 2019 OECD Nuclear Energy Agency Study, using this global electricity system approach, has shown that too large shares of intermittent renewable sources are not optimal from the economic and reliability perspectives.
At a time when the COVID crisis is rigging the bell, leading to major concerns for the global economy, weCARE hopes that the European Commission will develop a proposal for a Sustainable Finance classification making the distinction between myths and realities. It is a unique opportunity for the European Commission to declare nuclear energy eligible for sustainable investments, alongside renewable sources, as it was announced in 2018 by Commissioner Canete. Ensuring consistency of the proposal with other European Commission documents, such as the PINC in the promotional spirit of the Euratom Treaty, is a question of credibility. Beyond that, Member States have the freedom to decide to rely or not, at national level, on nuclear energy. But it should not stop the European Commission to act for the common good of the European people.
https://www.wecareeu.org/
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