Ref. Ares(2021)3395808 - 21/05/2021
Hydrogen Europe General Assembly
virtual meeting
15/12/2020 15:00
• It is a real pleasure to speak to you today at the Hydrogen Europe General
Assembly. These are extraordinary times in many ways, with the situation of
the Covid-19 crisis, but also the Brexit, the new MFF coming soon into play
and with our new Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strateby being adopted last
week! So it is excellent to be here with you in this way.
• First of all, let me congratulate you on all the good work of your association
up until now.
• I strongly believe that hydrogen is a key solution for the future mobility and
transport across all modes. Hydrogen is getting a lot of momentum now, and
rightfully so!
• The new Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy is a major milestone for the
further development of the transport policy at European level. It sends a clear
message: Greening mobility must be the new licence for the transport sector
to grow.
• The strategy sets out an ambitious pathway with appropriate milestones for
the sector. It comes together with an action plan that sets out 82 concrete
initiatives.
• A number of these initiatives articulate further measures that we are going to
take to
accelerate the overall market uptake of clean hydrogen, fuel-cell
vehicles and infrastructure:
o As regards
buses, the numbers are still limited, but we see that
more and more cities and regions are deploying them. The revised
Clean Vehicles Directive is a key push here. I am glad to see that
we have a good pipeline of projects prepared under the Connecting
Europe Facility.
o When it comes to
trucks, I am excited about the action of
manufacturers. In a few years’ time, we shall see long-distance
fuel-cell hydrogen trucks enter the market in series production.
Now we need to accelerate our effort to make
hydrogen fuel cells
a
widely available option for trucks, but also for
coaches. Continued
joint research efforts via the Clean Hydrogen Europe Joint
Undertaking will be essential for reaching this goal, in combination
with the other partnerships under Horizon Europe and later
deployment in CEF, ESIF, InvestEU and RRF.
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o As regards
rail, hydrogen trains are a perfect solution to replace
diesel engines on that part of the network, which could not be
electrified. It is good to see the first larger fleet projects here.
o We also need to watch
Hydrogen-derived fuels - synthetic fuels
that are mainly produced from hydrogen. They provide a key
solution for emission reduction in aviation and shipping.
o But it is not only about fuels in those modes. In our strategy we set
the ambitious milestone of having
zero-emission vessels by 2030
and
zero-emission aircraft by 2035 ready for the market.
• So, what are the key actions?
1. DG MOVE is actively working on the
RefuelEU Aviation and
FuelEU
Maritime initiatives to scale up the market demand and (directly or
indirectly) the market supply for sustainable alternative fuels, including
synthetic fuels, by the end of quarter 1 of 2021. These initiatives will
complement the review of the Renewable Energy Directive (Q2 2021).
2. The review of the
Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive with the
rollout of a sufficiently dense infrastructure for hydrogen refuelling (Q2
2021).
3. The revision of the TEN-T Regulation to ensure full connectivity of the
TEN-T network with alternative fuels infrastructure.
4.
Recovery and Resilience Facility: we are pushing Member States to
prioritise investment into clean hydrogen as one of the essential areas to
address in the context of the energy transition.
5.
Connecting Europe Facility and InvestEU – for CEF, we propose a large
investment into alternative fuels infrastructure, frontloaded through a
blending facility for the first years. InvestEU provides a real opportunity
now to support fleet renewal and market take up of hydrogen fuel-cell
vehicles. Let us make use of it!
6.
Horizon Europe, and the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, will
continue to play its key support role for R&I.
• A last word on the important point of full industrial value chain organisation:
• The Commission has launched earlier this year the
European Clean Hydrogen
Alliance - building on the success of the Battery Alliance.
• You are fully involved in the organisation of the mobility roundtable under
this Alliance. For us, it is also a priority to contribute to making this
roundtable a success.
• We will also consider in the months to come the needs and benefits of a
complementary Low-Carbon and Renewable Fuels initiative to ensure that the
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ramp up of the production and distribution of such fuels gets the highest level
of attention and action it deserves.
• Ladies and gentlemen, you understand our ambition and the challenges that
lie ahead of us all. I hope that we can realise many of them in 2021 and I am
looking forward to continue our cooperation. On that very positive note I
would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a good start of the
New Year!
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