In a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, Jozef Síkela, Czech Republic Minister of Industry and Trade, and Markus Pieper, Member of the European Parliament, the two representative bodies say adopting the DA will reduce policy uncertainty for renewable hydrogen.

It comes after the European Parliament in September 2022 voted in favour of the Renewable Energy Directive II (REDII) to commit to the ambitious binding target to see an overall renewable energy contribution of 45% to the total energy mix by 2030.

Read more: ‘Historic day’ for hydrogen in Europe says Hydrogen Europe CEO

At the time of the REDII vote, the European Parliament signalled the need to set rules to produce RFNBO that are flexible and do not place undue complexity on renewable hydrogen projects on the continent.

Hydrogen Europe and the Renewable Hydrogen Coalition say these rules, under a DA, must happen sooner rather than later. In the letter, they state, “The renewable hydrogen industry cannot afford to wait another three months to have production rules, nor face a patchwork of national rules from the transposition of RED that would obstruct cross-country trade and undermine investments.”

The letter continues, “The energy crisis is a wake-up call. Europe needs to build additional renewable capacity, especially to meet the expected electricity demand for renewable hydrogen. That is the so-called ‘additionality’ principle, and this DA is instrumental to enforce it so all sectors can decarbonise at the same time while avoiding increasing carbon emissions and consumption of fossil fuels.”

The organisations claim that there will be ‘no investments’ if offtakers cannot claim their hydrogen as fully renewable and have called on the EU institutions to “forge a compromise” that protects the integrity of renewable hydrogen with robust rules.

You can read the full letter here.