Yesterday, the European Commission adopted the long-awaited Delegated Act (DA) on low-carbon hydrogen, completing the regulatory framework alongside the 2023 rules on renewable hydrogen. The DA will soon be transmitted to Parliament and Council, and a scrutiny period of two months (extendable two additional months) will kick off. 

In its current form, the DA risks enabling the production or import of hydrogen against Europe’s decarbonisation goals, as it does not adhere to strict emissions accounting rules true to real-world circumstances. The DA reflects heavy lobbying by incumbents and lacks the environmental integrity necessary to guide a genuine transition, in which hydrogen serves as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself.  

The DA sets the methodology for calculating the emissions savings to be examined against the fossil fuel comparator to ensure emissions savings of 70%. However, it falls short on duly accounting for all the emissions associated with low-carbon hydrogen: 

• Upstream methane emissions remain under-accounted: 

The DA currently stipulates a default value for upstream methane emissions of pipeline natural gas of 5.32 gCO2eq/MJ. But this figure is much too low and does not reflect global average leakage rates appropriately (see our latest joint open letter). The value is also lower than those used in earlier drafts, which applied default factors of 5 and 6.6 gCO2eq/MJ, plus a 40% increase on those numbers to derive the default values.  

Unlike previous drafts, which did not distinguish between pipeline-bound natural gas and LNG, the final DA introduces separate default values for LNG. However, the input values for LNG are uncertain, and it is possible they will rely on fossil industry data reporting.  

• Low-carbon hydrogen must not entrench fossil fuel dependency: 

To stay on track with the EU’s 2040 climate targets, low-carbon hydrogen must support – not undermine – the fossil phase-out. The DA misses the chance to introduce a declining emissions threshold over time and restrict fossil gas use to existing production, which would be especially critical given that the default values were watered down.