Paris, Madrid When can hydrogen be called “green”? The government in Paris responded with satisfaction to the EU Commission’s proposal that the industrial gas can also be considered climate-friendly if the electricity required to produce it comes from nuclear power plants.
People around the French Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher spoke of a “nice French victory”. Because the European hydrogen criteria are about much more than just a technical definition. Behind this is the highly political question of what role nuclear power should play in the energy transition in Europe in the future.
The protagonists in the conflict are Germany and France, who have taken different paths but have ignored the sensitive issue for a long time. Now the EU’s two largest economies are clashing in an attempt to define a common European framework on the road to climate neutrality.
And the dispute is likely to become even more heated: the proposed definition of green hydrogen was only the first step. In the coming weeks, negotiations between member states, the Commission and the EU Parliament will decide whether to recognize nuclear alongside renewables.
The federal government wants to prevent that. “We have a clear position,” said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs. “In our opinion, nuclear power is not renewable energy and hydrogen produced with nuclear power is not renewable, green hydrogen.” With this position, Germany will contribute to the discussions about the revision of the Renewable Energy Sources Directive.
Berlin: Hydrogen from nuclear power is not green
In addition to wind and solar energy, the government in Paris is also focusing on low-carbon nuclear power. At least six new reactors are to be built by 2035. Without the green label for nuclear-powered hydrogen, the French economy will probably not be able to achieve the EU climate goals.
“We are right about this, we will not let it go.”
(Photo: dpa)
In Paris, it is also believed that Germany is increasingly in a minority position in the EU. Several Eastern European countries are building or planning reactors, and Sweden and the Netherlands also want to invest in nuclear energy again. In a letter to the Commission last week, France, along with a number of allied governments, called for a “technology-open approach” that takes nuclear power into account for green hydrogen targets in transport and industry.
“Limiting the incentives to the production of hydrogen only with renewables would increase production costs and reduce the global competitiveness of European industry,” says the letter, which is available to the Handelsblatt. In its current form, the Renewable Energy Directive is “counterproductive” for the expansion of climate-friendly hydrogen use in industry and transport, which have particularly high CO2 emissions.
The Commission’s definition of hydrogen is a first step towards eliminating this “absurdity”, according to French government circles. Now it is a matter of achieving “equal treatment” of hydrogen from renewable and low-CO2 nuclear energy in the upcoming negotiations. At the very least, however, the EU directive must recognize the role of nuclear-powered hydrogen in achieving the climate goals.
Franco-German Relations in Crisis
Franco-German relations have been going through a complicated phase for several months, with differences ranging from the energy crisis to defense policy. In mid-January, both governments tried to send out a signal of harmony at the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty in Paris.
>> Read here: Nuclear power in France: new nuclear power plants at the expense of safety?
In the final declaration of the German-French Council of Ministers there was even a compromise formula for nuclear power: “In recognition of the differences between our respective national energy production” they wanted to work together on “hydrogen production on a large scale”. “We will also ensure that both renewable and low-carbon hydrogen can be taken into account in the European decarbonization goals.” For Paris, the matter was clear: Berlin will give up resistance in Brussels.
The French were all the more outraged when Berlin continued to oppose hydrogen from nuclear power. In French government circles there is talk of a “breach of word”. A senior official said: “We are right on this point, we will not let it go.”
The federal government, on the other hand, cannot understand the excitement – and interprets the final declaration of the meeting in Paris very differently: Both countries “presented their respective deviating or different positions on the use of nuclear energy,” said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.
>> Read here: BarMar becomes H2Med: Spain, Portugal and France are planning “the EU’s first hydrogen corridor”
The view from Berlin is: At best, member states such as France could count their nuclear energy towards the climate targets. However, nuclear power is not a “green” energy worthy of promotion. The German fear is that equating could hamper the expansion of renewable energies in Europe.
The Federal Republic knows that Austria, among others, but also Spain is on its side when it comes to the nuclear issue. The Ministry of Green Transition in Madrid clarified: “Some member states (including France) have asked the European Commission to include low-carbon hydrogen in the EU renewable energy targets. Spain clearly rejects this option along with other EU partners like Germany.”
The French government is of the opinion that a compromise was actually found with Germany and Spain in January: Berlin and Madrid are no longer blocking themselves against nuclear-power-based hydrogen, in return Paris is enabling the construction of a hydrogen pipeline from the Iberian Peninsula to southern France. The federal government is very interested in the prospect of the H2Med pipeline project being extended to Germany.
Paris threatens to block pipeline project
Now Paris is threatening to block the pipeline plans. “If France cannot produce its hydrogen because of European rules, then the economic viability of this project is in question,” said French government circles.
In the joint letter with allied EU states to the Commission, France also makes the development of a European hydrogen infrastructure more or less clearly dependent on the nuclear issue: The conditions for a cross-border pipeline network could “in a context in which member states do not have the same views on the Sharing the production and use of hydrogen” does not have to be given, it says.
Germany wants to cover a large part of its future hydrogen requirements with imports. The gas produced with solar or wind energy is said to come from southern Europe and North African countries, among others. Above all, France is striving for its own production capacities based on the nuclear power park – and hopes to become a hydrogen exporter itself.
The Spanish energy expert Ramón Mateo from the Bebartlet consultancy is surprised at the French approach. The H2Med pipeline project is about transporting hydrogen from renewable energies from the Iberian Peninsula to the north – and non-nuclear-based hydrogen from France to the south. “Now it’s on the agenda in Brussels and France is using H2Med as leverage to get Spain and Germany to back down on the issue.”
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