With the college of European Commissioners set to formally adopt its EU Hydrogen Strategy on Wednesday (8 July), the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) is arguing that it ‘needs to prioritise hard-to-decarbonise transport modes’.
Alongside the adoption of its Hydrogen Strategy and a Strategy on Smart Sector Integration, the EC will also be launching a Clean Hydrogen Alliance, through which it will work with industry and other stakeholders in developing new initiatives to support the hydrogen sector.
T&E has submitted a response to the Commission’s consultation on the EU Hydrogen Strategy and supported an NGO coalition letter calling on the Commission to ‘focus on lead markets for sustainably produced, renewable hydrogen’.
In its feedback document – submitted on 8 June – T&E said that the ‘greatest added value’ of the EU Hydrogen Strategy would be to give ‘a strong focus on those hard-to-abate sectors where hydrogen has to play a role’ – and it maintained that ‘shipping and aviation are two ideal candidates to become lead markets for hydrogen’.
The T&E continued: ‘For shipping, the EU Hydrogen Strategy should focus on the mass-scale production of renewables-based liquefied hydrogen and ammonia. For aviation, the focus should be on synthetic kerosene produced from green hydrogen and CO2 from direct air capture. Supplying these transport modes alone will require 1710 TWh, the equivalent of almost twice the EU’s 2015 renewable electricity generation.
‘These lead transport markets will generate significant investments in the hydrogen value chain. For both sectors, supply side strategies should be complemented with demand-side measures; i.e. regulatory requirements on ships calling at EU ports and planes taking off from the EU airports to use these new fuels. The most appropriate tools are ‘goal-based operational CO2 standards’ for ships, and ‘fuel-blending mandates’ for planes (as well as taxation and subsidy reform).’