Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including nuclear and gas as taxonomy aligned endeavours in the EU’s Green Taxonomy; and if he will make a statement.

In October 2021, the Government published ‘Greening Finance: A Roadmap to Sustainable Investing’, which set out its approach to economy-wide Sustainability Disclosure Requirements, including reporting against the UK Green Taxonomy. This underlines the Government’s commitment to the taxonomy being science-based, accessible, and built for the UK to support a global transition to net zero. The Government has been working with the Green Technical Advisory Group and the Energy Working Group during the development of draft Technical Screening Criteria to achieve this ambition.

As the Prime Minister has stated, the Government intends to consult on the inclusion of nuclear in the draft technical standards for a UK green taxonomy and the development of Technical Screening Criteria is currently ongoing. As set out in the Roadmap, the Government expects to consult on draft Technical Screening Criteria in coming months, ahead of legislating by the end of the year.