Europe’s clean energy will be possible only with imported green hydrogen, according to EU climate chief Frans Timmermans.
“I strongly believe in green hydrogen as the driving force of our energy system of the future,” the European Commissioner for Climate Action told the European Parliament last week. “And I also strongly believe that Europe is never going to be capable to produce its own hydrogen in sufficient quantities.”
EU climate chief Frans Timmermans who is also the commission’s executive vice-president for the European Green Deal declared:
“If around the Mediterranean, in the widest sense, we can create a diversified interdependence, which means that we all have a stake in this production, distribution, utilization of green hydrogen, this is the future, this is how you also create more stability in the geopolitical system. This is how you offer an enormous opportunity for the development of Africa — 600 million Africans who now have no access to energy will have access to electricity”
In a related context, 11 former European Union leaders demanded in a letter to the European Union that it should avoid closing in on years of dependence on fossil fuels.
In this plan, the focus will be on wind farms and solar energy, and incentives for companies to reach the desired goal, which is the production of low-carbon energy, and the training of specialists and labor in green jobs.
These moves come in light of the need to replace Russian gas after Moscow cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria last month.
The European Hydrogen Strategy, released in the summer of 2020, called for 40GW of electrolysers to be installed in Europe by 2030, with a further 40GW in “Europe’s neighborhood with export to the EU”.