The European Parliament’s industry committee has reached a position on its review of the Renewable Energy Directive (Red) that sets a 5.7pc target for renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs) in the transport sector by 2030.

This compares with the European Commission’s original proposal of 2.6pc and the EU Council position at the same level.

RFNBOs consist mostly of renewable hydrogen and hydrogen-based synthetic fuels.

The industry committee also agreed a new subtarget of at least 1.2pc RFNBOs by 2030 in the maritime sector—a measure that was not in the Commission proposal.

5.7pc – Target set by industry committee for RFNBOs in the transport sector

And the committee agreed that 50pc of the hydrogen used in industry should come from RFNBOs by 2030 and 75pc by 2035—in line with the Commission but significantly higher than the EU Council positions of 35pc and 50pc respectively. 

It also laid out a system for a long-awaited green hydrogen guarantee of origin scheme and called for a hydrogen import strategy to be set out in European law.

The committee also said the rules for green hydrogen production—currently being consulted on by the European Commission—need to be simplified, but they could not agree a position on this.

“It is regrettable that we could not find a majority in favour of simplifying the criteria for green hydrogen. The delegated act presented by the Commission is too complicated,” says industry committee member Markus Pieper.

The two delegated acts that will define what can qualify as renewable hydrogen have proved to be the most controversial part of the current legislative package.

Industry body Hydrogen Europe is still concerned that the criteria are too strict and will lead to a slow roll-out of capacity.

“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,” says Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO of Hydrogen Europe.

“We remain deeply concerned about the enormous singular impact of the delegated act on the renewable hydrogen sector and the ambitions set under RepowerEU.”

Ongoing process

The position agreed by the industry committee still needs to be approved by the European Parliament plenary vote, which takes place in September.

Representatives of Parliament and the EU Council then enter trialogue negotiations, with the final shape of the law a compromise between the two bodies’ positions.

 

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Author: Tom Young