Brussels, 20 March 2025 – Just days before the Commission publishes new rules defining what qualifies ‘low carbon’ hydrogen and fuels, an investigation by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), the Fossil Free Politics (FFP) coalition, Power-Shift Germany and ReCommon exposes the lobbying efforts of Big Polluters around it.
Under the EU Clean Industrial Deal, the Commission has fast-tracked the release of the Low Carbon Hydrogen Delegated Act, now expected to be published next week. Our new investigation reveals how fossil fuel giants have been lobbying to skew emission accounting models, allowing hydrogen made from fossil gas to be misleadingly labelled as ‘clean’. This could pave the way towards billions in new subsidies for fossil fuel projects that exacerbate the climate crisis.
A three-step strategy to greenwash hydrogen
Belén Balanyá, researcher and campaigner with Corporate Europe Observatory, explains,
“Despite all the greenwash and lobby campaigns, it was clear already a few years ago that the fossil fuel lobby follows a clear three-step strategy around hydrogen. First, they convinced the EU to embrace hydrogen as the ʻclean’ fuel of the future, with regulatory and financial support for green hydrogen. Next step, they keep pushing for support for blue hydrogen. Step three will be about accepting ʽany kind of hydrogen’, regardless of its fossil origins, as there will simply never be enough green or blue hydrogen. By then, years will have passed without a concrete plan for a fossil fuel phase-out, polluters will have cashed in on taxpayer money, and fossil fuels and their infrastructure will have greatly expanded. Meanwhile, the climate crisis continues to accelerate”.
Lobbied rules, fake climate benefits
“EU Clean Industrial Deal in action: opening floodgates to dirty hydrogen from fossil fuels”, uncovers how the fossil fuel and energy intensive industries Big Polluters are using EU policy loopholes to justify continued fossil fuel investments. It maps out the extensive lobbying efforts of the oil and gas lobby and energy-intensive industries, including chemicals and steel. Strategies used by these industries include:
- Emission accounting tricks: industry proposals aim to lower – or even erase – how emissions linked to the production of fossil gas, feedstock for so-called blue hydrogen, are accounted for.
- Weakening green hydrogen rules: it also includes a renewed assault on green hydrogen rules, agreed already in the so-called RFNBO delegated acts (renewable liquid and gaseous fuels of non-biological origin), which are key to ensuring that hydrogen production does not just lead to more gas and coal electricity generation.
Nathan Stewart, coordinator of the Fossil Free Politics campaign, warns:
“Fossil fuel giants are using hydrogen as a smokescreen to keep their dirty business alive. By manipulating EU policy, they’re rebranding fossil-based hydrogen as ‘low carbon’—a blatant act of greenwashing that threatens to further derail real climate solutions. Instead of cutting ties with fossil fuel interests, decision-makers are letting industry lobbyists write the rules of our energy future. We need a firewall between fossil fuel interests and decision-makers before it’s too late.”
There is reason for concern that the fossil fuel lobby’s deceptive modelling proposals and its wider narrative on the delegated act seem to have been adopted at the highest levels in the European Commission, as well as among EU member states, with the German Government leading the charge.
Neelke Wagner, Climate and Resource Justice campaigner at PowerShift says:
“It’s a shame that the European Union, pushed by Germany, has opened more and more doors for fossil hydrogen. Carbon capture and storage (CCS), the technique behind so-called “blue” hydrogen, is an illusion and a scam. Using fossil gas to produce blue hydrogen to replace fossil gas is obviously nonsense from a climate point of view. Yet, the European Commission has embraced it .”
A part of the Clean Industrial Deal and broader competitiveness and deregulation agenda
The investigation reveals that lobbying for the low-carbon hydrogen delegated act is part of a broader agenda that has been prioritized by the new European Commission. Corporate influence over its various components threatens to trigger a domino effect with significant negative consequences for climate policies.
As a case in point, Big Polluters are leveraging the Commission’s “simplification mantra” and Omnibus package to roll back hard-won climate protections, such as the EU’s 2024 Methane Regulation. This could open the door for continued imports of highly polluting LNG from fracked gas in the US, despite its likely failure to meet EU climate requirements. Continuing and expanding imports of US LNG are promoted as well under the Action Plan for Affordable Energy.
Elena Gerebizza, Energy and Infrastructure researcher and campaigner at ReCommon says:
“The European Commission is dangerously using simplification to push forward false solutions like CCS and blue hydrogen. This is going to the advantage of fossil corporations, blocking a just transition and locking us into a fossil fuel model. Communities are more and more excluded from decision-making, and we can’t accept it.”
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