The EU’s green hydrogen targets are not considered realistic by the European Court of Auditors

European Union targets for production and import of green hydrogen fuel are unrealistic and unlikely to be met despite billions of euros in funding, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) said on Wednesday.

The European Commission has set targets to produce up to 10 million tonnes of hydrogen from renewable sources by 2030 and import another 10 million tonnes. While not binding, the targets are part of the bloc’s plans to end its dependence on Russian energy imports.

In its report, the ECA said these targets were based on “political will” rather than robust analysis and that the EU is a long way from achieving them.

Another target set by Brussels, to install at least 40 gigawatts of renewable hydrogen electrolysis by 2030, was an idea proposed in documents by a hydrogen lobby group, the auditors found.

Despite €18.8 billion ($20.5 billion) in EU funding available for green hydrogen projects, projects that would add less than 5 GW of capacity by 2030 have reached an advanced stage, although projects of total capacity about 50 GW are also in an earlier evaluation stage.

Green hydrogen is seen as vital to meeting the EU’s climate change commitments. It is produced using renewable energy to split water – a process that produces no CO2 emissions – and the EU relies on it to decarbonize industrial processes such as steel and fertilizer production.

“The EU’s renewable hydrogen industrial policy needs a reality check,” said auditor Stef Blok, who led the report.

The ECA said the European Commission should devise a more targeted approach to allocating scarce EU funding and update its policies to incentivize hydrogen projects.

A Commission spokesman said it was aware of the report and acknowledged that the hydrogen market is taking shape “gradually”.

“Our work is far from over. We now need to accelerate the deployment and uptake of renewable energy and low-carbon hydrogen in Europe,” the spokesman said.