The declaration on “Sustainable and Smart Gas Infrastructure for Europe” was signed on Tuesday 2 April in Bucharest by 17 EU Energy Ministers at the informal meeting (see EUROPE 12227/10).
Neither France, nor Germany, nor Spain nor Italy is among the signatory countries, which are: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. They are committed to “maximis[ing] the potential of natural gas infrastructure” to enable “increasing shares” of hydrogen and renewable gases.
The signatories acknowledge that increasing the share of renewable energies and carbon-free gases in the EU's energy mix over the coming decades “would support achieving the greenhouse gas emissions reduction”.
They are convinced that gas infrastructure will have to play its part in decarbonising the energy system by preparing to transport increasing amounts of gases other than natural gas, such as hydrogen, biomethane or synthetic methane, and by addressing the issue of methane emissions.
To read the text of the declaration: https://bit.ly/2G1HnIg. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)