The EU has unveiled its Clean Industrial Deal – setting out concrete actions that will see decarbonisation become a driver of growth for European industries, leading to lower energy prices, jobs and thriving companies.
Striving to boost every stage of production, the Deal focuses on energy intensive industries, including steel, metals and chemicals, and the clean-tech sector, which sits at the heart of future competitiveness and is necessary for industrial transformation, circularity and decarbonisation. Circularity is another key factor of the Deal, striving to reduce waste and extend the life of materials through promoting recycling, reuse and sustainable production.
Within the Deal, it recognises the need for concrete measures on the demand side to ensure businesses make the necessary investments. Under this is where it lays out how it plans to promote the uptake of renewable and low carbon hydrogen, stating it has a “central role” to play in decarbonising the EU energy system – especially hard-to-abate sectors.
With a clear regulatory framework crucial, the European Commission will adopt the delegated act on low carbon hydrogen in Q1 2025, clarifying rules for producing low carbon hydrogen in a pragmatic way. Through this, it will be able to provide certainty to investors.
It is also planning to launch a third call under the Hydrogen Bank in the third quarter of 2025, promising a budget of up to €1 billion to de-risk and accelerate the uptake of hydrogen production in the EU. Before this (Q2 2025), the Hydrogen Mechanism will be launched under the European Hydrogen Bank, helping to mobilise and connect offtakers and suppliers, linking participants with financing and de-risking instruments to facilitate aggregation of offtakers’ demand for hydrogen and hydrogen-derived fuels in hard-to-decarbonise industrial sectors and transport.
Finally, in a bid to prepare for a review of the delegated act on renewable fuels of non-biological origin, a study is being launched to assess the effectiveness of the hydrogen framework and identify possible barriers to the upscaling of renewable hydrogen.
