Energy Transition

Crucial EU renewable energy policy talks halted as Brussels squabbles over hydrogen rules

Delays to the European Commission’s final Delegated Act defining green hydrogen threaten to derail Europe’s legislative programme for renewable energy

Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy.
Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy.Photo: Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The European Commission’s (EC) failure to finalise rules governing green hydrogen production has led a frustrated legislator to cancel crucial talks on the EU’s flagship renewable energy directive, which could lead to delays in the block's larger renewable energy plan.

Markus Pieper, the German rapporteur in charge of the talks complained that a key hydrogen-related appendix to the review of the Renewable Energy Directive II (RED II), the Delegated Act (DA), had still not been presented by the EC — meaning that the talks could not go ahead.

“The delegated act is of paramount importance not only for industry but also for our trialogue … to agree on transport related targets,” Pieper told those due to attend, in an email cancelling the talks.

The delegated act defines how much additional renewable electricity should be used for electrolytically-produced hydrogen to qualify as “green”, as well as when and where. Many in the H2 industry in Europe warn that they delay is holding up investment in European hydrogen.

The 'trilogue' talks between the EC, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on its revision of RED II were scheduled for today (Tuesday) to discuss the final version of the legislation, which includes new renewable energy goals and new targets for the use of hydrogen fuels in transport and industry. A directive is a legislative act that sets out a goal that all EU countries must achieve, usually through legislation on the member state level.

The cancellation of the talks threatens the progress of the renewables directive, which forms a critical part of the EU’s Fit for 55 package of reforms to help the bloc reduce its emissions by 55% by 2030.

The act, effectively a supplement to the upgraded RED II, has been bogged down in disagreements between member states and with industry for months over how green hydrogen should be defined, despite the EC appearing to reach an agreement in December.
Hydrogen industry figures have told Hydrogen Insight that there is a growing fear in the industry that RED II would pass without the DA being finalised, leaving H2 regulation in limbo for longer.
In addition, a group of nine member states, including France, are lobbying for low-carbon hydrogen to be included in RED II, further muddying the waters.

Industry groups stressed how important the DA is for the sector.

“[We] would like a timely resolution to the DA so that the industry has the legal certainty it has been craving for the last couple of years,” a spokesman for H2 lobby group, Hydrogen Europe told Hydrogen Insight.

But while the EC lamented the cancellation of the talks as “rather regrettable", it would not be drawn on how far away a final version of the DA might be, merely repeating that it is “working on it” and will present it “as soon as possible”.

“Commissioner Simson is available for the trialogue [talks on RED II],” a spokesman added at the press briefing yesterday. “It was in her diary. She is ready to sit down with the Parliament and Council to take this work forward.”

A slightly different version of this article first was published on Recharge sister publication Hydrogen Insight
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Published 7 February 2023, 14:33Updated 7 February 2023, 14:33
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