"Federal Environment Ministry says goodbye to the National Hydrogen Strategy"

Berlin --- The draft bill by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) for the implementation of the European Renewable Energy Sources Directive (RED II) ignores the goals of the Federal Government and the EU and thus endangers hundreds of thousands of German jobs and economic opportunities a broad market launch of hydrogen and the achievement of climate targets in transport. - With the draft bill, the BMU is blocking the development of the hydrogen economy and fuel cell technology, which should be boosted by the National Hydrogen Strategy (NWS). This prevents the declared industrial and climate policy goals from being achieved. - According to Minister Schulze, renewable electricity-based fuels and fuel cell vehicles should not be given a chance to contribute to achieving the climate targets in transport. - But it is even more worrying that the BMU is ignoring the resolutions of the cabinet, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat on the national hydrogen strategy. With its proposals, the BMU is saying goodbye to the 2030 climate targets and the use of green hydrogen in transport and is focusing almost exclusively on battery-electric mobility in order to achieve the climate targets in transport. In order to achieve the climate goals, however, it is essential that the share of renewable fuels for non-battery-electric vehicles increases significantly. However, according to the BMU, this should even decrease in the coming years. The draft thus contradicts proposals from industry and business, which include a gradual, ambitious increase in greenhouse gas reductions for fuels and, in some cases, under-quotas of green hydrogen. "With this, the BMU is de facto proposing that nothing should happen in the next five years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the drive energy in traffic. The current fleet of around 53 million petrol and diesel vehicles will be able to contribute practically nothing to climate protection that neither the current climate targets nor the much more ambitious traffic targets announced recently in Brussels will be achieved. What is needed is a broad, technology-open approach and no single fixation on just one technology with the high risk of fines if the targets are not met multiple damage occurs: firstly, financially through the necessary purchase of emission rights from other member states,secondly due to the associated competitive disadvantages compared to the selling member states and thirdly due to the lack of development of a hydrogen economy and the associated strengthening of renewable industries, "said Werner Diwald, chairman of the DWV. The federal government is obliged by European law to achieve a share of renewable energies in transport of 14% in accordance with the Renewable Energy Directive II (RED II, Renewable Energy Directive II) by 2030. The BMU, on the other hand, only plans a greenhouse gas reduction of 7.5% by 2026. How it should go on is questionable. Even the automotive industry is more ambitious here and is calling for a greenhouse gas reduction of at least 15% by 2030 compared to the reference value. The BMU also advocates multiple offsetting of electrical power for a climate sham. For example, fossil electricity that is used in e-mobility should only be credited with 40% of its CO2 footprint and then even fourfold towards the RED II target. This trick, which the BMU intends to use, makes fossil-based electricity mathematically even better than renewable energies. Responsible climate protection works differently. The federal government recently announced that it would go beyond the European requirements and ensure more climate protection in traffic. The BMU is obviously of a different opinion here. "There is a direct contradiction between the Federal Government's decision in the national hydrogen strategy to ambitiously implement RED II and become the global technology market leader in hydrogen technologies, and the draft law presented by the BMU. This is not acceptable from the point of view of climate protection and sustainable economic and industrial policy and does not do justice to the role model function that Germany has under the current EU Council Presidency, "said Werner Diwald in conclusion. The DWV therefore demands that the present ministerial draft of the BMU for the national implementation of RED II be fundamentally revised immediately. The statutory regulation must ensure that a market-based and sustainable industrial demand is generated for green hydrogen and its secondary products in all their possible applications in transport. Source: DWV

German Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association Criticizes German National Hydrogen Strategy