Hydrogen Europe has issued a statement in response to misleading allegations that it is an oil and gas “lobby” and a proponent of fossil fuels.
Hydrogen Europe responded to such labels on Thursday (6th May), stating that the organization has been the subject of frequent defamatory, misleading, and baseless claims in recent weeks and months, with the most recent “assault” coming from a Friends of the Earth Europe report.
“We take these false and baseless statements accusations very seriously and we will be considering legal avenues against this defamation to protect our members and our vision,”
Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, Secretary General of Hydrogen Europe
In its recently released statement, Hydrogen Europe explains that considering the harm false and baseless claims can create, it is urged to highlight and provide fact- based information on some of the recently published statements and accusations.
The first of two statements which Hydrogen Europe addressed within its recently released press release read, “Hydrogen Europe, like Eurogas and IOGP, pushed for a large role for ‘blue hydrogen’ based on CCS.”
“This statement is not only factually wrong, but it highlights a substantial contradiction within the Friends of the Earth Europe report: on one hand, we are accused of promoting the fossil fuel interests (with no factual proof), on the other we published the 2x40GW Green Hydrogen Initiative.”
Hydrogen Europe
“In this paper we push to unlock the vast renewable energy potential and have green hydrogen contributing to economic growth, the creation of jobs and a sustainable, affordable and fair energy system,”
association explained
Moving focus onto a separate claim which read, “154 ‘other organisations’, including many trade associations that represent the fossil fuel industry, such as Hydrogen Europe,” Hydrogen Europe said that this is yet another factually incorrect assertion.
“Hydrogen Europe has a Charter that all the members have to sign and agree to when joining the association. This is not only erroneous but disparaging towards our whole membership which covers the entire hydrogen value chain. Today, Hydrogen Europe has 267 members, of which only 19% can count as “fossil”. In our association Board seats are not purchased and each full member has one vote, regardless of its size or the membership fee that they pay,”
association explained
“Additionally, when it comes to investment and involvement in green hydrogen, we have tracked 244 unique water electrolysis projects amounting to 51,536 MW of water electrolysis capacity for the EU, EFTA and UK region. 61% of those projects involve the so called “traditional” energy companies.
“Furthermore, those projects are usually larger than average – so in terms of MW, the so called “fossil fuel” companies are involved in 81% of the total electrolysis projects in the EU, EFTA and UK region. This shows how our members, including those coming from the fossil background, recognise and support the development and deployment of green hydrogen.”
The association continued, “Regarding the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance (ECH2A), its formation was built on the principles of transparency and inclusiveness. Hydrogen Europe supported the inclusion of representatives of the entire value chain of the hydrogen system as well as representatives of civil society.
“NGOs have been invited to participate in the ECH2A and they are represented in each round table. Since the launch event of the ECH2A, they were always invited to actively take the floor and they had so far a decisive impact on the debate and the results.”
