Brussels – The fossil gas industry will not be handed control of a future European hydrogen network, according to a deal concluded today on updated rules for the EU’s gas market. The European Parliament, European Commission and national governments finished negotiations on the revised rules, after disagreement on who should plan and manage the new hydrogen grid became the last sticking point in talks last week.

Campaigners had warned that allowing the gas industry to plan and run a new hydrogen network would be a conflict of interest that would lead to reckless overinvestment in unnecessary infrastructure, and wasteful use of hydrogen for purposes like home heating, contrary to the deal’s stated intention of targeting hydrogen to the sectors that are the hardest to decarbonise.

Greenpeace EU climate and energy campaigner Silvia Pastorelli said: “Hydrogen must be treated as a fuel of last resort, really only for the industries that we can’t decarbonise otherwise. Letting the gas industry plan and run the grid would have been a clear conflict of interest, and have led to a like-for-like replacement of hydrogen for gas. The simple fact is that we must burn less fuel for energy, not just burn something new, whatever its chemistry.”

Negotiators agreed to form an independent body to plan and administer a future hydrogen network. It will be expected to work in close cooperation with the transmission system operators for gas, including on the first EU hydrogen plan in 2026.


Contacts:

Silvia Pastorelli, Greenpeace EU climate and energy campaigner: +32 496 12 20 94, [email protected]

Greenpeace EU press desk: +32 (0)2 274 1911, [email protected]

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