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There's no going back on cheap fossil fuels, says Timmermans

Oil&Gas Materials 26 October 2022 12:32 (UTC +04:00)
There's no going back on cheap fossil fuels, says Timmermans
Laman Zeynalova
Laman Zeynalova
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 26. There's no going back on cheap fossil fuels, said Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, Trend reports October 26.

“That chapter is also closed. If we think in terms of cheap energy, it's going to be renewable energy. But let's not fool ourselves. Without that cheap energy, without affordable energy, we will not be able to keep the European economy and European society going. And we had that experience before: those of us who lived through the 1970s know exactly what happened then, when we also were put in a situation of energy becoming very expensive. It was a longer-term factor, but it also led to a lot of innovation and we should be able to show that we can do this again. To restore our industrial competitiveness, to address the cost of living crisis we need to reduce the role of fossil fuels in our energy system and to drastically cut the cost of producing renewable hydrogen,” he said speaking at the EU Hydrogen Week 2022 on October 25.

Timmermans believes that costs can only go down once there are deployments on the ground.

“And I'm very proud to see that 30 percent of projects planned globally in renewable hydrogen production are located in Europe. But I'm concerned that less than 10 percent have taken final investment decision. So, for the next two years, my goal is to help you take these decisions much faster. For this I see four priority actions. First, we need to accelerate investments in renewables and address lengthy permitting [processes], both for renewable installations and transmissions. Second, we must provide regulatory certainty on the definition of renewable hydrogen and the principle of additionally. Third, we need to finalize legislative work on the market design for hydrogen and on renewable targets and hydrogen sub-targets. And then, the fourth and final elements is of course funding.”

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