“Do No Significant Harm” Principle and Current Challenges for the EU Taxonomy Towards Energy Transition

“Do no significant harm” to the environment is a European principle to which companies and financiers refer in all investment decisions, since in economic activity increased attention and respect for the environment must be shown. The “Regulation on taxonomy” takes into account the effect of an activity on the environment but also the effect on the environment of the products and services provided by the respective activity during the entire life cycle; it aims, at the same time, to stop the practice of “greenwashing”—with the meaning of presenting something harmful to the environment as beneficial to the environment. Regarding nuclear energy and natural gas, although there are controversies over the observance of the “do no significant harm” principle, they are considered strategically important for the energy security of Europe. Thus, both in the case of nuclear energy and natural gas, the activities must contribute to the transition to climate neutrality; in the case of nuclear power, activities must meet a set of requirements for nuclear and environmental safety. For Romania, the context of the application of the DNSH principle and the EU taxonomy had a particularly important stake for internal energy security, given that our country will invest, through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, in natural gas pipelines also adapted for hydrogen, as well as in the expansion of activity in the field of nuclear energy.