Bonkers

"The European Commission is split over whether to postpone a decision on classifying gas generated from fossil fuels as green energy under its landmark classification system for investors. Brussels had planned to publish an updated draft of a taxonomy for sustainable finance later this week. The document is designed to guide those who want to direct their money into environmentally friendly investments, and help stamp out the misreporting of companies’ environmental impact, known as greenwashing. The commission was forced to revamp its initial proposals earlier this year after the text was criticised by member states which want gas to be explicitly recognised as a low-emission technology that can help the EU meet its goal of becoming a net-zero polluter by 2050. Now the publication of the draft rules could be postponed again as the commission seeks to resolve the impasse. According to a draft of the text seen by the Financial Times, the commission proposed to delay the decision in order to carry out a separate assessment of how gas and nuclear “contribute to decarbonisation” to allow for a more “transparent” debate about the technologies. But officials told the FT that some commissioners were pushing for gas to be awarded the green label now, rather than delaying the decision until later this year.

https://www.ft.com/content/0efef7ec-4fbb-47d0-9776-65b018dea172

Here's what the EADT has written about the start of the examination.

"Parish and town councils, environmental organisations and campaign groups asked the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) for the crucial procedure to be put back because of the huge pressure many local people are facing in fighting both Sizewell C and plans for two enormous offshore windfarms and infrastructure at the same time.

The campaigners are also anxious that PINS has still not decided whether to accept EDF Energy's revised plans for the £20billion Sizewell project, leaving them even more work to do."

https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/sizewell-nuclear-power-station-pins-examination-starts-7901168

Interesting that China Daily would run this OpEd, but good that they have done so..

"The decision of the Japanese government on Tuesday to proceed with plans for discharging radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean is a direct threat to the marine environment, public health and fisheries, and violates the human rights of people in Japan as well as other countries.

In total, 1.25 million cubic meters of highly contaminated water from the disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is currently stored in tanks. Nearly 800,000 cubic meters still contains high levels of radioactive strontium-90 and iodine-129 and other radionuclides. This is because the technology used — the ALPS system — failed to reduce radioactive elements as claimed by the plant owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company."

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202104/14/WS607633a2a31024ad0bab553c.html