Opportunity Green said
that the EU Taxonomy should act as the standard for informing ethical and
sustainable investments. It exists to provide a verified list of green
investments to companies, investors, and policymakers while providing huge
amounts of private finance to activities that deliver a fair and green
transition.
The NGOs argue that, under the shipping criteria,
LNG-powered ships could be taxonomy compliant, despite LNG being a fossil fuel
which produces methane. According to the statement, there is no scientific evidence for these
new criteria, and that they could potentially jeopardise climate mitigation
efforts and the EU’s legally binding climate targets.
The new aviation
criteria also have weak fuel efficiency standards, Opportunity Green claimed,
or are certified to fly on low levels of sustainable aviation fuels, and as
such, may be taxonomy compliant.
This challenge is the latest in a series of legal
challenges that have been filed against the Commission for bringing fossil fuel-based activities into the
Taxonomy under the label of transition activities. The NGOs added that this
would just be the first step in the challenge which may lead to court action
before the European Court of Justice if the Commission does not address the
legal issues raised.
The chilled fuel has its advocates and detractors. One group tout the benefits of LNG in considerably
reducing sulphur and particulate pollution and cutting CO2 emissions during
fuel combustion, hence arguing that LNG is the only transition fuel available
at scale today for reducing shipping CO2 emissions. However, a growing body of
literature shows that upstream methane leakage and high methane slip of some
LNG-powered engines more than offset the CO2 emission benefits of LNG.Other names joining the detractor’s team
include some giant names like the World Bank which two years ago published
a maritime decarbonisation report in which it specifically recommended
countries pull back from investing in further LNG bunkering infrastructure.
London’s UCL Energy
Institute said in a report in 2022 that as much as $850bn of tonnage is at risk
of being stranded by 2030 if the shipping sector continues investing in
LNG-capable ships. Similarly, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has
been highlighting of late in far greater detail the harmful effects methane is
having on the planet.