170 firms urge EU to preserve binding green hydrogen targets

A group of 170 European energy sector firms has urged the European Commission to maintain the binding green hydrogen transport and industry mandates introduced under the Renewable Energy Directive III (RED III).

It follows a leaked Commission draft which weighed ditching the targets in the directive’s post 2030 framework.

Under RED III, EU member states are being pressed to mandate that renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs) account for 1% of energy in transport and 42% of industrial hydrogen use by 2030, with quotas rising in the following decades.

The leaked draft, which has been met with widespread criticism, proposed replacing these targets with an 8 million-tonne-per-annum (mtpa) consumption goal.

This would fall far below the scale envisaged under REPowerEU, which targeted 10 mtpa of domestic renewable hydrogen production and 10 mtpa of imports by 2030.

The signatories addressing the Commission claimed abandoning RED III’s goals would “waste six years of work, send shockwaves through the market, punish first movers, and undermine confidence in EU climate and energy policies.”

It cited €15bn ($17.1bn) that has been put into achieving the targets, and claimed that reaching the 2030 RED III milestones comprises an additional investment opportunity of up to €60bn ($68.4bn).

François Paquet, Managing Director at the Renewable Hydrogen Coalition, said the RFNBO goals bring the certainty on which investment relies, also calling for better implementation and stronger support mechanisms for meeting them.

“Weakening the targets now would send exactly the wrong signal at exactly the wrong time,” he added.

Hydrogen Europe CEO, Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, recently told H2 View that removing the binding quotas would be a “catastrophe,” while a spokesperson for Shell said the company believe a “stable and predictable” regulatory framework is “essential” in the sector.