A motion on the EU\u2019s hydrogen strategy won support from the European Parliament on Wednesday (19 May), backing the use of \u201clow-carbon hydrogen\u201d made from fossil gas as a bridge towards 100% renewable production.<\/p>\n
The EU\u2019s hydrogen strategy, unveiled in July last year, aims to promote hydrogen based entirely on renewable electricity like wind and solar, but also supports \u201clow-carbon hydrogen\u201d in order to scale up production in the short term.<\/p>\n
The Parliament report \u2013 a non-binding motion with no legal consequences \u2013 acknowledges the need to grow the European market as quickly as possible, saying this will require \u201clow-carbon hydrogen\u201d as a bridge towards 100% renewable production.<\/p>\n
The motion was passed by 411 votes in favour, 135 against and 149 abstentions.<\/p>\n
In the Parliament\u2019s view, \u201clow-carbon\u201d includes so-called \u201cblue\u201d hydrogen, which is made from fossil gas in combination with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to store the associated CO2 emissions underground.<\/p>\n
Although the report makes no explicit mention of nuclear, it is understood that the \u201clow-carbon\u201d definition also encompasses \u201cyellow\u201d hydrogen made from nuclear power.<\/p>\n
Amendments to the motion were tabled by the Greens, who oppose blue hydrogen made from fossil gas, but none of those amendments found a majority when they were submitted to a vote on Tuesday (18 May).<\/p>\n
Instead, a majority MEPs from the left-wing S&D, the centre-right EPP and centrist Renew Europe political groups joined forces to bring the report over the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority of the European Parliament showed support for an innovative European hydrogen market,\u201d said German MEP Jens Geier, who drafted the motion on behalf of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D).<\/p>\n
\u201cThis report does not contain a single word I did not want there,\u201d Geier told journalists at a press briefing on Monday (17 May). \u201cA hydrogen market is an important step towards European decarbonisation,\u201d he said.
\nLawmakers support ‘low-carbon’ hydrogen, stay mute on nuclear<\/p>\n
The European Parliament\u2019s industry and energy committee passed a resolution on Monday (22 March) supporting hydrogen produced from \u201clow-carbon\u201d energy sources, including fossil gas with carbon sequestration. The motion stopped short, however, of mentioning nuclear as a potential energy source.<\/p>\n
In opposition were the Greens\/EFA, while the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID), and the Left largely abstained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe market ramp-up will only succeed if we complement the expansion of renewable hydrogen production with the potential of low-carbon hydrogen,\u201d said Angelika Niebler, a German EPP lawmaker and shadow rapporteur on the report.<\/p>\n
Niebler added that she personally opposes the use of nuclear energy in hydrogen production.<\/p>\n
Although the report carries no legal implication, it sends an important political signal ahead of an upcoming legislative package of energy and climate laws to be tabled by the European Commission on 14 July.<\/p>\n
Hydrogen is seen as a potential silver bullet to decarbonise hard-to-abate industrial sectors like steel and chemicals, which currently rely on fossil fuels and cannot easily switch to electricity. It is also seen as a long-term solution for shipping, aviation and heavy-duty road transport where electrification is not feasible at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a no regret scenario,\u201d said Bart Groothuis, a Dutch lawmaker for the Renew group. \u201cThis house aspires to ensure that hydrogen can be traded in the world market in euros,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Green lawmakers and environmental activists, on the other hand, were furious.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Greens, we cannot support demands for financial and regulatory support for so-called \u2018low carbon hydrogen\u2019, claiming it is needed for a transition period,\u201d said Henrike Hahn, a German Greens MEP.<\/p>\n
\u201cMEPs got this wrong. So-called \u2018low-carbon\u2019 \u2018bridging technology\u2019 hydrogen is a high-carbon bridge to nowhere,\u201d said Camille Maury from the WWF.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiving a transitional role to low carbon hydrogen, and diverting precious public funds from the no regret solutions, energy savings and renewables, would jeopardise the achievement of Europe\u2019s climate objectives,\u201d said Esther Bollendorff of Climate Action Network Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cHydrogen can be an energy of the future on the sole condition that it is produced from 100% renewable energy,\u201d added Damien Car\u00eame, a French Green MEP and shadow rapporteur on the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am outraged that the crazy amounts of money \u2013 \u20ac58.6 million according to a low estimate by Corporate Europe Observatory \u2013 spent by the gas lobby and the 163 meetings it had with 3 European Commissioners, members of their cabinets or the DGs concerned have so much shaped the hydrogen strategy presented by the Commission and endorsed by the European Parliament,\u201d Car\u00eame told EURACTIV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A motion on the EU\u2019s hydrogen strategy won support from the European Parliament on Wednesday (19 May), backing the use of \u201clow-carbon hydrogen\u201d made from fossil gas as a bridge towards 100% renewable production. The EU\u2019s hydrogen strategy, unveiled in July last year, aims to promote hydrogen based entirely on renewable electricity like wind and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571],"tags":[10630,15240,15434],"supplier":[4514,5585],"class_list":["post-88750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-hydrogen","tag-lowcarbon","tag-politics","supplier-european-parliament","supplier-european-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88750"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=88750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}