EU Draft Torpedoes Hydrogen Ramp-Up – Association Warns Against Regulatory Self-Blockade

• Planned EU legislation makes the use of blue hydrogen more difficult and thwarts the Clean Industrial Act.
• Excessive emission values and unclear certification rules are slowing down investment in climate-friendly technologies.
• Kehler: “Blue hydrogen is not yesterday's option, but part of an affordable and reliable transformation.”

The current draft of the EU Commission's Delegated Act on the definition of low-carbon fuels represents a serious setback for the hydrogen ramp-up for the association Die Gas- und Wasserstoffwirtschaft. According to Dr. Timm Kehler, Chairman of Die Gas- und Wasserstoffwirtschaft, the draft also clearly contradicts the declared objectives of the Clean Industrial Act and the Draghi Report.

“With this draft, the EU Commission is putting obstacles in the way of its own energy policy. It is not only contradicting the goals of its own gas market package, but is also ignoring key recommendations of the Draghi Report. If you want to combine climate protection and competitiveness, you have to enable as many CO2 reduction tools as possible. Blue hydrogen is not a relic of yesterday, but a necessary building block for an affordable and reliable transformation.”

The association is particularly critical of the blanket assumption of extremely high methane emissions in the upstream chain of natural gas. These assumptions mean that even highly efficient projects for the production of hydrogen from natural gas with simultaneous capture of the resulting CO2 (blue hydrogen) could be deemed non-compliant in future - even though they are expressly provided for in international climate neutrality scenarios. At the same time, the planned link to the Union database creates new bureaucratic hurdles instead of regulatory clarity. Innovative processes such as methane pyrolysis and plasmalysis, which are used to convert methane into hydrogen and solid carbon, would also be effectively excluded by the legislation.

“The draft shows once again that Brussels is continuing to rely on control instead of the market - and is thus weakening its own climate targets. This is not only an industrial policy risk, but also a strategic mistake - especially in the global competition for climate-friendly technologies,” says Kehler.

The association is therefore calling on the new German government to resolutely advocate technology-open, pragmatic and reliable framework conditions in the further process. This is the only way for Europe to live up to its own claim of being both an industrial location and a climate pioneer.