Experts say EU unlikely to meet green hydrogen production and import targets

According to Financial Times, several industry representatives at the World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said the EU would be unable to meet its stated targets for domestic production and imports of green hydrogen. The reason is complicated and unclear regulation.  

In July 2020, the EU adopted a communication entitled A hydrogen strategy for a climate-neutral Europe. Communications are non-binding documents issued by the Commission to assess, comment on or explain its policies, as it is the only institution with the right to propose legislation.

The EU's hydrogen strategy focuses primarily on renewable, or green, hydrogen. The Commission proposed two targets for this type of hydrogen. The first is to produce 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen in the EU by 2030, and the second is to import a further 10 million tonnes.

The European Commission sees hydrogen primarily as a tool for decarbonising industry and other sectors where decarbonisation is difficult. However, according to several speakers at the World Hydrogen Summit, which focuses on hydrogen, the EU is unlikely to meet its targets.

For example, Maarten Wetselaar, CEO of Spanish energy company Cepsa, said the targets could be met only if governments significantly accelerated permitting processes and allowed subsidies and support to flow freely.

The problem is an unclear legislative framework

Frans Timmermans, by contrast, said, according to the Financial Times, that the EU was on track to achieve much more than its 2030 targets. In his speech at the World Hydrogen Summit, Timmermans noted, among other things, that electrolyser capacity of more than 40 GW is currently planned in the EU.

Other specific steps taken by the EU include setting targets in the Renewable Energy Directive, ongoing work on a list of projects of common interest that will include hydrogen projects, and making funding from the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the Innovation Fund available through the newly launched hydrogen bank. The total amounts to tens of billions of euros.

At the end of his speech, Timmermans said the legislative framework should be clear by the end of the year. However, regulation was often cited by the sector as the main problem. Industry representatives said that many projects were not reaching a final investment decision because of regulatory uncertainty.

For example, the Commission published its proposed definition of green hydrogen only in February this year. Negotiations on the Renewable Energy Directive itself have also not yet been definitively concluded, while a compromise still needs to be reached between the European Parliament and the Council on the so-called gas decarbonisation package.