The EU has officially proposed rules to label investments in gas and nuclear energy projects as "green", sparking fury among environmental activists and member states opposing the decision.

The controversial plan was contested as soon as the bloc announced its proposal in the final hours of 2021, with critics saying that investing in fossil fuels was worsening the climate crisis and that nuclear is too dangerous a technology to rely on.

EU commissioner Mairead McGuinness admitted that the plan announced on Wednesday might be "imperfect" but added that "it is a real solution.

"We need to move as fast as we can from the highest-carbon energy sources like coal during this transition," McGuinness said. "That may mean accepting imperfect solutions."

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To obtain the controversial label, gas and nuclear projects must answer a long list of sector-specific criteria and "strict conditions," McGuinness insisted. 

Gas projects must meet emission thresholds and achieve reduction targets, as well as replace existing coal facilities that cannot be substituted with renewables and switch to renewable or low-carbon gases by 2035.

For nuclear, the EU Commission said that research, development and use of advanced technologies reducing waste and improving safety will be considered. 

The rules mean private investors will be able to inject money into gas and nuclear energy projects which will officially qualify as investments in sustainable energy.

But there was strong dissent from several EU members.

A letter to the EU Commission from Denmark, Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands said that calling gas sustainable is "largely incompatible" with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.

The Ecological Transition Ministry in Spain said that the Commission's proposal "doesn't send the appropriate signals for investments in clean energy."

Austria and Luxembourg declared they're ready to challenge the decision once it comes into effect. "The decision is wrong because it endangers the future," said Austrian Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler. 

"We are giving our children a backpack full of problems... It's irresponsible," she added. "We will prepare all legal steps in the next weeks, and if or when the taxonomy takes effect, we will file legal action at the European Court of Justice."

Many critics think believe that France and Germany got their way, as the two countries which have been seen to rely the most on gas and nuclear energy.

France is Europe's biggest nuclear energy supporter, with the country relying on it to supply 70 percent of its national electricity consumption. 

Germany, on the other hand, is abandoning nuclear power plants and coal-fired stations to replace them with natural gas.

Environmental activists have also expressed outrage at the proposal, calling it "greenwashing."

Greenpeace sustainable finance campaigner Ariadna Rodrigo was a particularly vocal opponent of the new taxonomy, saying that this decision will take "billions of euros away from renewables and sink them into technologies that either do nothing to fight the climate crisis, like nuclear, or which actively make the problem worse, like fossil gas."

She called the bloc's decision "an attempted robbery."

But the Commission argues that this is a chance for the whole EU to move significantly forward towards achieving its ambitious 2050 net-zero target.

The Commission's proposed new label will apply from 2023, unless a veto is imposed by a majority at the European Parliament or 20 of the EU's 27 countries – but experts say that is very unlikely to happen.