Policy miasma: Failure to crack down on methane emissions thwarts EU’s ‘clean hydrogen’ push
The European Commission is putting hydrogen at the heart of the EU Green Deal without first driving the most potent climate-warming gas out of the fuel required to produce it.
The European Commission has done more than probably any international body to advance the issue of climate neutrality on the world stage. Its European Green Deal has set in motion an ambitious policy package intended to set the 27-member bloc on a path towards ‘net zero’ climate emissions by 2050.
Policy proposals from the EU’s executive arm are prone to political meddling prior to implementation, often to water them down to reach political compromise. A recent example was the late-night horse-trading over the EU budget that resulted in a €40 billion fund intended to support a ‘just’ energy transition being gutted.
With pushback to green policies coming even from supposedly climate-conscious member states Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, the onus is on policymakers in Brussels to set the bar as high as reasonably possible on its energy and climate legislative agenda.
As the Commission puts the final touches to its EU methane strategy, this does not seem to be happening. The …
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