Fossil fuels

Hydrogen4EU, a corporate lobby group that includes Shell, BP, Exxon and Total, wants the EU to subsidise a huge expansion of fossil hydrogen, which is also known as ‘blue’ hydrogen.

As fossil hydrogen requires large amounts of fossil gas to produce, achieving Hydrogen4EU’s goal would require Europe to import 11% more fossil gas than it does today – from an already massive 274 billion cubic metres, to 303 billion cubic metres by 2030.

This would make it near impossible for the EU to fulfil its recently announced goal eliminating Russian gas imports well before 2030.

New proposals by EU lawmakers to boost production of fossil hydrogen would also help maintain Europe’s reliance on fossil gas imports.

These include a push by the European Parliament’s lead MEP for green energy to include fossil hydrogen in the Renewable Energy Directive, and the European Commission’s proposal for supporting fossil hydrogen via the EU's recently proposed gas market rules

Together, these and other EU proposals for boosting fossil hydrogen threaten to undermine its own plans for ending Russian dominance of Europe’s gas market.

Global Witness is calling on EU decision-makers to stop providing regulatory and financial support for fossil hydrogen, and focus public resources on accelerating the deployment of genuinely sustainable climate solutions such as wind, solar and energy efficiency.

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