The Parliament calls on strong and binding hydrogen renewable targets as part of the Renewable Energy Directive and to strengthen Europe’s energy resilience

Today, the Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee of the European Parliament finalised the work on the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) paving the way for the plenary vote in September and forthcoming inter-institutional negotiations.

Hydrogen Europe warmly welcomes the European Parliament’s efforts to go beyond the initial proposal on the RED II revision and align it with the ambitions of the REPowerEU communication. We welcome the increased ambition to deliver 45% renewable energy by 2030, together with binding sectoral targets for the consumption of renewable hydrogen in industry and transport.

Specifically, we are very glad the Parliament’s ITRE Committee approved higher ambitions in transport – a higher GHG emission reduction target in transport of 16% by 2030 (in comparison to the Commission’s proposal of 13%), with a 5.7% target for renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs)  in the transport sector by 2030 (compared to the Commission’s proposal of 2.6%) and a sub-target of at least 1.2% RFNBOs by 2030 in the maritime sector(new). Equally, we are delighted with the Parliament’s ambition on the industry target of reaching 50% of RFNBOs by 2030 and 75% by 2035 (new). This sets a much higher bar than what Member states recently agreed, with no binding targets in transport and a smaller binding target of 35% RFNBOs in industry.

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, Hydrogen Europe CEO, commented: “Today’s vote sent a clear message – Europe is determined to become energy resilient and move away from Russian fossil fuels. The ambitious binding targets for renewable hydrogen in transport and industry endorsed by the honourable Members of the European Parliament are the strong signals investors and project developers were waiting for.”

Likewise, the Parliament sent a bold message to the Commission on the Delegated Act on the methodology setting out the rules for RFNBOs production – without necessary changes, as expressed massively by the industry during the consultation phase, the Delegated Act is very likely to be removed from primary legislation at the plenary level.

Chatzimarkakis continued: “We remain deeply concerned about the enormous singular impact of the Delegated Act on the renewable hydrogen sector and the ambitions set under the REPowerEU. We call on the European Commission to stop ignoring repeated warnings of the industry and adapt the document in a way that fosters the rapid scale-up of hydrogen technologies. Only with a suitable regulatory framework, we will  be  properly responding to the current energy crisis.”

In early June, the EC published its draft Delegated Act and invited stakeholders to share their views. Over 350 companies reacted, including Hydrogen Europe. We expect the Commission to publish a final version of the document after the summer for the European Parliament’s approval within two months.