NJust three weeks ago, the waves between Berlin and Paris seemed to have calmed down. At the Franco-German Council of Ministers, President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) demonstrated unity after a series of upsets. In particular, there was a compromise on the question of whether the energy source hydrogen, which is considered indispensable for decarbonization, can only be classified as climate-friendly on the basis of wind and solar power.
For months, Paris has been pushing for hydrogen produced with nuclear power to be given such a rating – and believed that it had convinced Berlin of this at the Council of Ministers. They will “ensure that both renewable and low-carbon hydrogen can be taken into account in the European decarbonization goals,” was the wording in the Franco-German declaration, whereby “low-carbon” is to be translated as “nuclear origin” and is said to be only on urging of the Greens should not be called that. In return for this concession from the German side, Paris gave its green light to extend the planned Franco-Spanish H2Med hydrogen pipeline to Germany.
But now the Franco-German hydrogen compromise is shaky. Berlin is not sticking to the outcome of the negotiations, said Secretary of State for Europe Laurence Boone on Monday and threatened to block the construction of H2Med. “France approved the H2Med project when it became clear that the pipeline could also be used to transport low-carbon hydrogen and not natural gas,” she told the FAZ. France only approved the project after a long hesitation because it does not want to be just a transit country.
The French Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher had previously indirectly accused both Berlin and Madrid of breaching their word. Despite the most recent agreements, Germany and Spain continued to resist accepting hydrogen from nuclear power plants as “green”. They are aiming at the ongoing discussion about the EU directive “Red III”, which provides higher targets for the share of renewables in the energy mix. “These negotiations are not taking a satisfactory turn,” Pannier-Runacher said in early February. She called it “incomprehensible if Spain and Germany take different positions to Brussels and do not honor their commitments”.
Important stage win
The federal government sees no contradiction to the January declaration. Renewable and “low-carbon” hydrogen were explicitly distinguished from each other in the text. Therefore, the energy source obtained from nuclear power cannot be considered renewable or “green”, as France claims, it said on Monday in Berlin. As mentioned in the text, French nuclear energy serves at best the “European decarbonization goals”, but not the expansion of renewable energies agreed in the EU. That is why the declaration also states very clearly that the “general level of ambition for the targets in the field of renewable energies” will be maintained.
#Hydrogen #dispute #France #threatens #Germany #pipeline #blockade