Delivering Europe’s Hydrogen Ambitions

A coalition representing the European hydrogen value chain is warning that without urgent adjustments to the EU’s hydrogen framework, Europe will not be able to scale up hydrogen and derivatives sufficiently to make a difference to industrial emissions.

→ Ramping up production: The rules governing hydrogen production and its derivatives, be it renewable or low carbon, are too rigid and complex. The current approach needs to be significantly simplified, to provide flexibility and ensure technology-neutrality, by linking support and eligibility based on verified lifecycle GHG intensity of the fuel.
→ Scaling up demand: The policy focus should be directed to efforts developing market-based frameworks that reward lower GHG-intensity products on the basis of lifecycle CO₂ emission performance standards.
→ Rolling out infrastructure: Hydrogen infrastructure is essential to Europe’s market scale-up. A phased cluster-based approach, aligned with the development of a future European backbone, should steer investment, complemented by blending, asset repurposing and the recognition of CO₂ infrastructure as strategic to the hydrogen value chain.
→ Strengthening financing and de-risking: Financing frameworks should provide support across the hydrogen value chain, addressing competitiveness gaps, de-risking infrastructure and enabling timely final investment decisions.
→ Facilitating imports to complement domestic production: The revised European Hydrogen Strategy should more comprehensively address the role of both renewable and low-carbon hydrogen imports and derivatives, clarifying viable mechanisms, potential infrastructure (including import corridors and bunkering) and strategic partnerships to support EU’s demand ambitions.

Read the full statement attached.