France slams ‘hypocrisy’ of low-carbon hydrogen critics – Euractiv.
French Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher slammed her German counterpart for his “hypocritical” stance on nuclear-powered hydrogen at an EU energy ministers’ meeting, after both countries agreed to maintain “tech neutrality” on the matter just a month ago.
Following a Franco-German compromise on “tech neutrality” last month, the Czech EU Council Presidency proposed introducing a new provision – Article 8a – into the EU gas directive, which is currently up for review.
The proposal, backed by Berlin, was meant to allow low-carbon hydrogen to be counted towards the achievement of decarbonisation targets for industry and transport under the EU’s renewable energy directive.
Since then, however, the Council’s legal services have questioned the provision’s legality, prompting member states opposed to mixing up low-carbon and renewable hydrogen to reiterate their opposition to nuclear.
These positions “are extraordinarily hypocritical” in view of “the climate emergency” which requires mobilising all low-carbon energy sources available, Pannier-Runacher said at Monday’s Energy Council meeting in Brussels.
Targets in the renewables directive
The Czech compromise was meant to defuse months of tensions between Paris and Berlin over the inclusion of nuclear-made hydrogen in the renewable energy directive.
Under the compromise, low-carbon hydrogen was to be counted “as a complement” in the calculation of national greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets in the renewables directive. It would also be allowed when calculating the share of renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs) in transport and industry under the same directive.
A new provision was also inserted in the draft to make sure low-carbon hydrogen “shall not be labelled nor advertised as renewable.”
The compromise proposal was in line with requests made by France and seven other EU countries – Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia – in a letter to the European Commission, dated 25 October.
Meeting the EU’s decarbonisation objectives “requires us to use the full potential of all renewable and low-carbon fuels and hydrogen,” says the letter, adding: “It is essential in that regard that EU law uphold the principle of technological neutrality”.
To achieve this, the letter calls for “equal treatment” of “all low-carbon hydrogen and low-carbon fuels” in both the gas and renewable directives “as long as they have the same contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions”.
The low-carbon hydrogen provision is also defended by the EU industry, which shared its views in an open letter sent to the EU institutions on 28 November. In the letter, it argues that hydrogen made with decarbonised electricity from the grid (i.e.: renewable or nuclear) makes it possible to produce hydrogen almost continuously.
However, this view is disputed by anti-nuclear countries like Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium who do not wish to see low-carbon hydrogen included in the texts relating to renewable energy, as Article 8a might suggest.
Unfavourable legal opinion
This is despite a bilateral agreement at the end of November where the French and German authorities seemed to have found common ground.
In a joint statement dated 25 November, the German and the French authorities expressed their commitment “to respect each country’s technological choices in terms of the electricity mix,” adding they “will together find a solution on how to reflect this common understanding in the ongoing legislative dossiers, including the gas [and hydrogen] package”.
This is what the Czech EU presidency tried to do with the new Article 8a of the gas directive, which makes a cross-reference to the renewable energy directive.
But an unfavourable opinion from the Council’s legal services on low-carbon hydrogen gave critical states ammunition to question Article 8a from a legal and political point of view.
Tinne van der Straeten, Belgian Minister at the opening of the Energy Council discussions in Brussels, said:
I believe that we should only work with fully renewable hydrogen in the Renewable Energy Directive.
“It is therefore the gas legislation that must include low-carbon hydrogen,” she added, saying that Article 8a “does not have this differentiated approach”.
The Dutch minister took a similar approach, while her Austrian counterpart said the Commission’s work lacked detail with regards to the points raised in the legal services’ unfavourable opinion, to which Spain’s Energy Minister Teresa Ribera added that “we should not mix low-carbon and renewable”.
This line is also defended by Germany which fears that low-carbon hydrogen would undermine the very purpose of a directive on renewable hydrogen production.
“Extraordinarily hypocritical”
Following this turn of events, Pannier-Runacher did not mince her words.
Pannier-Runacher, at Monday’s Energy Council meeting in Brussel, said:
The positions that have been expressed are extraordinarily hypocritical […] given the climate emergency.
“Nuclear electricity is useful when electricity is needed, but when it has to be put in the texts, it is no longer there”, she insisted.
“To retain this text [gas directive] without Article 8a would be to deny member states the choice of their energy mix” which is enshrined in the EU Treaties, she added.
This is not the first time Germany has attempted to do this, write Valérie Faudon, general delegate of the French Nuclear Energy Society (SFEN) and Philippe Boucly, president of France Hydrogen, in an opinion piece published on EURACTIV France.
“German negotiators in Brussels did not respect France’s choice to use its nuclear and renewable electricity to produce hydrogen,” they argue, referring to the failure of negotiations on the introduction of sustainable kerosene produced from nuclear power in the RefuelEU regulation on the development of sustainable aviation fuels.
Back to square one then, despite France having done its part by agreeing to the “H2Med” hydrogen corridor project from Spain at the Alicante summit on 8-9 December.
However, “torpedoing the French hydrogen strategy is totally counterproductive and will only increase dependence on imports,” Marion Labatut, EDF’s deputy director for European affairs, told EURACTIV France.
An untenable position ?
But for other observers, such as the environmental group Climate Action Network Europe, the French position remains untenable, especially from a legal point of view.
“The Council’s legal service has repeatedly stressed that existing primary legislation cannot be changed by other primary legislation,” it said.
In a joint statement with the renewables industry, CAN Europe calls on Sweden, which will take over the EU’s six-month rotating presidency in January, to “ensure policy coherence by keeping the Renewable Energy Directive for renewables only”.
Some EU member states also want the negotiations on the gas package to be postponed to the next presidency.
Claude Turmes, Luxembourg Energy Minister said during the meeting of EU energy ministers.
Under the Swedish Presidency we will probably be able to close [the gas package] if you are willing to delete Article 8a.
READ the latest news shaping the hydrogen market at Hydrogen Central
France slams ‘hypocrisy’ of low-carbon hydrogen critics, December 20, 2022
