On Monday 19 May, the European Commission presented the new proposal for a delegated act on low-carbon hydrogen, stemming from the ‘Gas Directive’ (see EUROPE 13455/26), at a meeting of the national expert group on renewable and low-carbon fuels, under the comitology procedure.
The latest version, dating from April this year, retains the date of 1 July 2028 for assessing the methodology for qualifying hydrogen produced from nuclear power as “low carbon”, in the context of a hydrogen producer signing a PPA (power purchase agreement) with a nuclear power plant (see EUROPE 13630/32).
However, it introduces the launching of a public consultation on this draft methodology by 30 June 2026 in order to satisfy pro-nuclear countries such as France and Poland.
For the production of hydrogen by electrolysis, these countries are advocating a methodology for calculating emissions based on specific projects rather than a method referring to the average emissions of the national energy mix.
The priority aim of the delegated act, which is due to be adopted by the Commission by August, is to define the carbon intensity of “blue” hydrogen, i.e. hydrogen produced from natural gas using carbon capture and partial storage, created following a steam reforming process.
According to the ‘gas’ package, hydrogen can be considered ‘low carbon’, as it reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 70% compared with fossil fuels.
Once adopted by the Commission, the new delegated act on low-carbon hydrogen must not be rejected by the EU Council or the European Parliament for a period of two months following notification by the Commission.
Generally speaking, a number of governments and players in the sector feel that the proposed rules are too strict and will not allow the production of blue hydrogen to develop.
As a result, the Commission has increased the default lifecycle emission values for the fuels used to produce this hydrogen, making it more difficult to classify “blue” hydrogen as “low carbon”.
Furthermore, Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, writing an opinion piece published by Hydrogen Insight, regretted that “clean hydrogen technologies, such as methane pyrolysis and the conversion of waste into hydrogen”, were not included in the Commission’s proposal.
Environmental organisations such as CAN Europe and the Green Hydrogen Organisation (GH2) believe that the default emission values could be raised still further, “especially given the pressure exerted by LNG imports from the United States, where methane leakage can be as high as 9.6%”.
To review the draft delegated act: https://aeur.eu/f/glq ; and the annex: https://aeur.eu/f/gwi (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)