C 15/62
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
12.1.2022
Wednesday 19 May 2021
principles of proportionality, subsidiarity and better regulation, including the SME test; highlights, in this regard, that a flexible hydrogen market is needed to enable innovative first movers to make full use of the benefits and drive down the costs of hydrogen production, taking into account that the hydrogen market is not yet mature and needs to be scaled up;
15.
Believes that the EU gas market design and the Clean Energy Package could serve as basis and example for the regulation of the hydrogen market; highlights that the rapid and predictable development of functioning hydrogen production also requires democratic public planning, associating producers, workers and their trade unions, scientists and non-governmental organisations (NGOs); also encourages the Commission and the Member States to devise specific solutions in order to ramp up hydrogen production in less connected or isolated regions, such as islands, while ensuring the development of related infrastructure, including by repurposing it;
16.
Calls on the Commission to include and assess the legal requirements that are necessary for an EU sustainable hydrogen economy in its impact assessments regarding the revision of the relevant legislation, in order to deliver on the EU’s increased climate ambition and make renewable hydrogen more economically attractive; urges the Commission to look, in particular, into the review of the Renewable Energy Directive, the Energy Taxation Directive (18) and the ETS Directive, in order to ensure a level playing field and a future-proof regulatory framework for hydrogen;
17.
Welcomes the Commission’s ambitious goals of increasing the capacity of electrolysers and renewable hydrogen production; calls on the Commission to develop a roadmap for the deployment and upscaling of electrolysers and to forge partnerships at the EU level to ensure their cost-effectiveness; urges the Commission and the Member States to remove existing administrative burdens and to incentivise the expansion of the value chain and the market uptake of renewable hydrogen in order to make it technologically mature and competitive by providing financial stimuli and dedicated funding schemes, including innovative solutions such as feed-in premiums for renewable hydrogen fed into the hydrogen grid, by revising State aid rules and by carrying out a comprehensive revision of energy pricing and taxation systems with a view to internalising external costs; stresses that renewable hydrogen could become competitive before 2030, provided that the necessary investments and an adequate regulatory framework are in place and renewable energy is competitive;
18.
Notes that a sustainable hydrogen economy should allow capacities to be ramped up inside an integrated EU energy market; recognises that there will be different forms of hydrogen on the market, such as renewable and low-carbon hydrogen, and underlines the need for investment to scale up renewable production fast enough to reach the EU’s climate targets and environmental goals for 2030 and 2050, while recognising low-carbon hydrogen as a bridging technology in the short and medium term; calls on the Commission to assess approximately how much low-carbon hydrogen will be needed for decarbonisation purposes until renewable hydrogen can play this role alone, in which cases, and for how long; calls on the Commission and the Member States to reduce regulatory and economic hurdles in order to foster a quick market uptake of hydrogen; further notes the need to avoid unsustainable resource exploitation, continued methane emissions, carbon lock-in and stranded assets; underlines that the use of hydrogen should contribute to achieving EU climate goals and the fast development and deployment of renewable hydrogen;
19.
Stresses the importance of phasing out fossil-based hydrogen as soon as possible, focussing on the cleanest technologies in terms of sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions; urges the Commission and the Member States to immediately start planning that transition carefully, so that the production of fossil-based hydrogen starts decreasing swiftly, predictably and irreversibly and so that the prolongation of the lifetime of fossil-based production facilities is avoided; notes that a number of fossil-based hydrogen production sites are located in the just transition territories and highlights that effective support measures should be directed at the decarbonisation of existing fossil-based hydrogen production; urges that measures aimed at the development of the European hydrogen economy should not lead to the
(18)
Council Directive 2003/96/EC of 27 October 2003 restructuring the Community framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity (OJ L 283, 31.10.2003, p. 51).