Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcasts.

In this podcast, we'll talk about the potential of renewable hydrogen to decarbonise industry and heavy-duty transport

and help the EU achieve its climate objectives, especially now that the European Commission

has clarified the conditions for hydrogen to be certified as renewable.

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Long heralded as an alternative to fossil fuels, renewable hydrogen is increasingly being

pitched as the means to enable Europe's green revolution and help decarbonize sectors

where other alternatives

are either unfeasible or more costly.

It can be used to replace fossil fuel for transport and industrial processes like

fertilizer production and steelmaking, but also to make synthetic fuels, for example, for aviation.

Such hydrogen-based fuels are called renewable fuels of non-biological origin.

But what exactly is renewable hydrogen?

First of all, it's important to clarify that hydrogen is an energy carrier and not itself

a source of renewable energy. The fuel, which can be

produced in a variety of ways, has been classified in colour codes depending on the method used.

So it's considered green or renewable if it's produced with electricity from renewable sources

to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Gray, if it's produced by the reaction

of natural gas with steam, and can turn into blue hydrogen if the resulting carbon emissions are

captured and stored underground. In 2022, hydrogen accounted for less than 2% of Europe's energy

consumption and was used mainly to produce chemical products

...