UCD Business faculty issue Open Scientists’ Letter on Financing Fossil Fuels
Encouraging the Financing of New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure by including Fossil Gas in the EU Green Taxonomy is not Compatible with a 1.5°C World.
A group of scientists led by UCD College of Business faculty Theodor Cojoianu, Andreas Hoepner, Fabiola Schneider and Joeri Rogelj from Imperial College London, have warned that encouraging the financing of new fossil fuel infrastructure by including fossil gas in the EU Green Taxonomy is not compatible with a 1.5°C world.
The letter contains 66 signatories from scientists around the globe.
The open letter is addressed to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for an Economy Valdis Dombrovskis and European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union Mairead McGuinness.
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Dear President von der Leyen,
Vice-Presidents Timmermans and Dombrovskis,
Commissioner McGuinness,
We are alarmed by a renewed proposal to allow fossil fuels into the EU Green Taxonomy.
The EU Taxonomy was conceived as a science-based gold standard to avoid greenwashing. The proposal to include gas into the Green Taxonomy would result in the Taxonomy itself becoming a greenwashing tool.
These unwarranted proposals are implied by President von der Leyen in her tweet but stand in direct contradiction to her Green Deal and the EU ambition for higher climate targets. They would also undermine and discredit the EU's global climate leadership. The scientific integrity of the EU’s Green Taxonomy must be maintained.
With other countries developing competing taxonomies for sustainable investments, including fossil gas into the EU Taxonomy would forgo the opportunity to define a global gold standard and lower global ambitions, setting a precedent that could result in other countries labelling a broad range of fossil fuel investments as sustainable.
For all of the above reasons, this gas lobby-promoted proposal must not be countenanced. For the EU Taxonomy to have any sustainable legacy, the Commission's Delegated Act must be consistent with the independent Technical Expert Group’s science-based recommendations.
We therefore urge the European Commission to reconsider this change in direction and reject the proposal to include fossil gas into the EU Green Taxonomy.
Yours sincerely,
Theodor Cojoianu, Queen's University Belfast
Andreas Hoepner, University College Dublin
Joeri Rogelj, Imperial College London and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Fabiola Schneider, University College Dublin
Scientists (66 including those above)
Carol Adams, University of Durham
Hanna Ahlström, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Francisco Ascui, University of Edinburgh
Konstantinos Baltas, University of Essex
Matthew Brander, University of Edinburgh
Proinnsias Breathnach, Maynooth University
Patrick Bresnihan, Trinity College Dublin
Timo Busch, Hamburg University
Nora Campbell, Trinity College Dublin
Charles H. Cho, York University
Céu Cortez, University of Minho
Helen De Coninck, Eindhoven University of Technology
Ivan Diaz-Rainey, University of Otago
Adam Dixon, Maastricht University
Sabine Dörry , University of Luxembourg
Fabrizio Ferraro, IESE Business School
Balázs Forman, Corvinus University of Budapest
Paul Gilbert, Sussex University
Céline Guivarch, CIRED, Ecole des Ponts
Laura Horn, Roskilde University
Lars Kaiser, University of Liechtenstein
Christian Klein, University of Kassel
Joanna Krasodomska, Cracow University of Economics
Thomas Lagoarde-Segot, Kedge Business School
Qian Li, Cardiff Business School
Ming-Tsung Lin, University of Essex
Giovanna Michelon, University of Bristol
Martha O’Hagan, Trinity College Dublin
Vera Palea, University of Torino
Jonathan Perraton, Sheffield University
Joana Portugal Pereira, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Saphira Rekker, University of Queensland
Zacharias Sautner, Frankfurt School
Frank Schiemann, Hamburg University
Michael Schmitt, Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf
Lisa Sheenan, Queen's University Belfast
Florinda Silva, University of Minho
Rüdiger Simon, Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf
Andrew Vivian, Loughborough University
Ulrich Volz, SOAS, University of London
Dariusz Wójcik, Oxford University
Chendi Zhang, University of Exeter
Iftekhar Ahmed , University of Otago
Giuliana Birindelli, Università degli Studi 'G. d'Annunzio' Chieti
Alexander Blasberg, University of Duisburg-Essen
Giulia Chersoni, L'Università di Torino
Jan Christ, Ruhr-University Bochum
Alex Clark, Oxford University
Nathan de Arriba-Sellier, Yale University
Sergio Garcia Vega, University College Dublin
Leonhard Gebhardt, University of Potsdam & HTW Berlin
Zhenyi huang, University of London
Scott Kistner, Queen's University Belfast, Sociovestix Labs
Yanan Lin, University College Dublin
Felicia Liu, Oxford University
Sean McGarraghy, University College Dublin
Diego Pérez Guisande, University College Dublin
Maurizio Riesner, Duisburg Essen Univserity
Theresa Spandel, Hamburg University
Nele Terveen, Technical University of Munich
Raphael Tietmeyer, Hamburg University
Gabija Zdanceviciute, University College Dublin
Civil Society & Industry (20)
Pernilla Bergmark
Spyros Binias
Luca Bongiorno, Ortec Finance
Russ Bowdrey, Ortec Finance
Richard Clarke, Ortec Finance
Sandro Cluori
Edward Coe, Ortec Finance
Manues Coeslier, Mirova
Lisa Eichler, Ortec Finance
James Hodson, AI for Good Foundation
Simon Iaffa, Brunswick Real Estate
Barrie Ingman
Bert Kramer, Ortec Finance
Rosanne Lam, Ortec Finance
Max Linsen, Portolan association
Arvea Marieni
Ricardo Romero
Jegor Tokarevich, Substance Over Form Ltd
Willemijn Verdegaal, Ortec Finance
Sander Wolters, Ortec Finance