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Brussels’ push to introduce hydrogen as a clean fuel has been slammed by the EU’s watchdog in a damning report that says despite €18.8 billion in funding, the bloc will fall short of its “unrealistic” targets.
The European Court of Auditors said the European Commission “failed to carry out thorough analyses” before setting production and import targets totaling 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2030.
“The EU’s targets have proven to be too ambitious: based on available information from Member States and industry, the EU is unlikely to meet them by 2030,” the report said.
Stef Blok, who led the report, told the Financial Times that hydrogen was vital to the EU’s ambitions to reach net zero emissions by 2050, but the targets were “not really based on available capacity”.
Hydrogen is seen as the key to decarbonising energy-intensive industries such as steel and the fertilizer industry.
“Hundreds of thousands of people earn their living in these industries and a well-managed transition is extremely important,” Blok added.
Brussels has long been a vocal supporter of the nascent green hydrogen industry, setting out a plan for at least 6 GW of renewable hydrogen electrolyzers to be installed in the EU by 2020 and around 1 million tonnes of green hydrogen produced per year by 2024.
The commission set more ambitious targets for 2022 as part of a strategy to wean the bloc off Russian fossil fuels following Moscow’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
These stipulate that hydrogen must come from renewable sources and exclude so-called low-carbon hydrogen, the production of which is powered by either nuclear power or carbon capture gas.
However, industry representatives have repeatedly said that the targets were unattainable and that the sector needed more support.
Industry body Hydrogen Europe said in a letter to the commission this month: “Europe needs to move from the notional inclusion of hydrogen in the energy mix to the serious development of a hydrogen economy.”
Europe’s consumption of renewable hydrogen in 2023 was just 0.11 million tonnes, and Europe currently has only 324 MW of green electrolysers, according to Hydrogen Europe – well below the commission’s target.
The ECA report found that total EU funding for hydrogen-related projects between 2021 and 2027 reached €18.8 billion.
But of the 24 member states that have submitted plans to decarbonise their economies to meet EU targets, only Germany has set a hydrogen import target. None of the countries have set specific targets for hydrogen production in their national strategies.
The Commission said it “notes the ECA’s critical assessment of the aspirational targets” and added: “We now need to accelerate the deployment and use of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen in Europe and further develop this emerging market.”
The definition of low-carbon hydrogen that the commission will use is due to be published this year. Under the proposal put forward by the FT, for hydrogen to be considered low-carbon, it must not be produced with more than 3.38kg of COâ‚‚ per kg – a level which campaigners argued was not ambitious enough for the EU to meet its climate targets.
Blok said that because the 2030 renewable hydrogen targets were “out of reach”, allowing low-carbon hydrogen to count towards the target was “a debate that needs to be taken seriously”.
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