It is becoming increasingly difficult for the federal government to present its energy policy as pragmatic and coherent.

It was bold to make natural gas combustion sustainable in the EU taxonomy, however necessary it may be as a transitional technique.

The European Parliament has now followed this line with a large majority, probably for the same reason that the EU governments agreed.

The German desire is balanced with France's desire to classify nuclear power as climate-friendly.

From a climate policy point of view, Paris has far better arguments than Berlin - for example, because it has been contributing more to meeting European climate targets than Germany for years.

When German environmental protection organizations portray gas and nuclear as equally evil, it has something of the defiant child stamping its foot on it.

The federal government's assertions that it had campaigned in vain for an objection by the EU states to the taxonomy compromise turned the result completely upside down.

Did Berlin seriously want to enforce the idea that nuclear power is harmful, but that gas is green?

An interesting statement from Scholz

This could only be justified if "green" hydrogen were within reach in large quantities.

But he is not.

For the foreseeable future, Germany will need another base load reserve in case the wind and sun do not supply enough electricity or no electricity at all.

It is not only the decoupling from Russian gas that shows that “sustainable” taxonomy has more than just one facet.

During Question Time in the Bundestag shortly after the decision in the European Parliament, the Chancellor said that the three nuclear power plants, which will be in operation until the end of the year, should produce as much electricity as possible in the summer in order to be able to reduce the use of gas to generate electricity .

The chancellor is absolutely right: that is in the interest of security of supply, economic efficiency and also climate protection.

Strange, however, that the term of this knowledge should expire on December 31 in Germany.