EU taxonomy, European renewable energy industry concerned about hydrogen provisions

A group of 23 organisations, mainly from the renewable energy industry, sent a letter to the European Commission on Wednesday 31 March calling on it to include the highest sustainability standards in the EU taxonomy for the production of “clean” hydrogen.

Stressing the need for future public and private investment to be “directed towards projects and economic activities with a substantial positive impact on the climate and the environment”, the signatories of the letter say they are “extremely concerned about the latest proposals” by the European Commission regarding the treatment of hydrogen in the taxonomy (see EUROPE 12684/3).

In particular, they point to the proposal to revise the carbon emission threshold below which hydrogen production would be eligible for the taxonomy. In their view, the Commission should stick to its original threshold (see EUROPE 12606/15) of 2.256 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per tonne of hydrogen (tCO₂eq/tH2) rather than raising it to 3 tCO₂eq/tH2.

They also ask the institution to maintain the emissions threshold for electricity generation from gaseous and liquid fuels at 100 gCO₂eq/kWh.

“The initial proposals tabled by the European Commission are in line with the leadership and ambition needed to tackle climate change and ensure that renewable hydrogen produced with 100% renewable electricity can benefit from an appropriate prioritisation regarding future public and private European investments”, the organisations said.

Already subject to intensive lobbying in the past (see EUROPE 12546/12), the future EU taxonomy is more than ever at the heart of an influence struggle between different economic sectors, industries and civil society organisations, since the publication in the press of a draft version of the delegated act intended to complete the EU taxonomy regulation (2020/852 – see EUROPE 12684/3), with each stakeholder hoping to influence the text of the European Commission before its official presentation on 21 April.

See the letter: https://bit.ly/3cAGDKy (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)