Europe’s renewable hydrogen revolution happens in cities and regions

Renewable hydrogen is an essential building block to reach the Green Deal objectives and achieve climate neutrality, especially when it comes to decarbonising industrial activities and heavy transport in EU cities and regions. The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) calls on the European Commission to reconsider the role of local and regional authorities for the future functioning of the European Hydrogen Bank, which is being set up to stimulate and support investment in renewable hydrogen. The CoR opinion drafted by Arianna Censi (IT/PES), Councillor for Mobility of the City of Milan, was adopted at the plenary session on 30 November, one week after the European Commission launched the €800m first pilot auction under the European Hydrogen Bank.

The CoR regrets the lack of supporting instruments for local and regional authorities to allow them to fulfil their role as a natural platform to connect hydrogen producers and users, to leverage skills development and to facilitate the upcoming European Hydrogen Bank calls. It points out that local and regional authorities are the key players when it comes to permits for additional deployment of renewables, assignment of parcels to projects and safeguarding environmental standards. With the upcoming roadmap for Hydrogen Valleys, the Commission should also address the issue of removing legal obstacles that prevent local and regional authorities themselves contributing to the production and sale of renewable hydrogen.

Ms Censi's opinion points out that renewable hydrogen should help decarbonise energy intensive industrial activities and heavy transports without compromising employment opportunities especially in carbon-intense regions. It underlines that the only sustainable form of hydrogen compatible with the Green Deal ambitions is renewable hydrogen and that the instrument must aim at lowering its production costs.

Regions and cities stress that hydrogen infrastructure must not be developed nationally but transnationally and across borders. When boosting the EU infrastructure for the production, storage, transport, distribution and consumption of hydrogen, the CoR reiterates the importance of geographical balance across the EU. Specific support should be given to cities and regions with lower renewable energy production capacity and evident obstacles for importing renewable hydrogen. The European Commission should also develop macro-regional auctions for hydrogen and ensure that the financial enveloped is shared between the different regions on an equal footing.

The CoR also calls to boost the European Hydrogen Bank budget with additional Emission Trading System resources and with top-ups from other EU funding programmes and national resources, in order to incentivise a bigger spread of the market, to allow for the effective engagement of smaller companies and SMEs, and to better support industrial sectors where the cost of transition will be higher. It underlines the importance of promoting local and regional production and utilisation of renewable hydrogen, including in the spirit of the Hydrogen Valleys concept which aims at creating clusters of innovation around hydrogen. According to estimations, 1 million new jobs could be created by 2030 for the entire hydrogen value chain.

Quote:

"From mobility to industry, from power to infrastructure, renewable hydrogen is an essential vector towards climate neutrality. It will significantly contribute to decarbonising our cities and regions, as well as to fighting energy and mobility poverty. The EU succeeded in shaping the main pillars of its regulatory framework that will boost the emerging hydrogen economy: not only as a beacon of hope for our planet’s health, but also as a key contributor to sustainable growth and new jobs. With most of the rules in place and the first auction launched, it’s now time for action", underlined rapporteur Arianna Censi(IT/PES), Councillor for Mobility of the City of Milan.

More information:

Last week, the European Commission officially launched the €800m first pilot auction under the European Hydrogen Bank. Bidding is now open and a decision on winning projects is expected by April 2024. President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the second European Hydrogen Bank auction would take place in spring 2024 with a budget of €2.2 billion. This figure is nearly triple the budget of the current pilot auction and meets the €3 billion commitment first made by President von der Leyen in her 2022 State of the Union address.

Contact:

Lauri Ouvinen

Tel. +32 473536887

lauri.ouvinen@cor.europa.eu