Massively ambitious EU targets slammed as 'total failure' in parliamentary debate
The European Commission has announced an overhaul of EU policy on a gas touted as a clean alternative to fossil fuels, including a target to produce domestically and import vast quantities of green hydrogen.
Shortly after the Kremlin launched its total war on Ukraine in 2022, and with reliance on Russian gas now seen as an unacceptable weakness, the EU put forward a target of producing 10 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year by 2030, and import an equivalent amount.
Four years on, and the heralded ‘hydrogen economy’ has yet to materialise. Céline Gauer, newly minted chief of the EU’s energy directorate, told the European Parliament’s industry committee on Thursday that a change was in the offing.
“It is correct that the ramp up of hydrogen production is far, far away from the expectations we had collectively and from the plans that member states had made,” Gauer said. In 2025, just 5% of targetted electrolysers for that year had been built.
