Gas for Climate fully supports the increased EU’s 2030 emission reduction target of 55%, consortium members are ready to play their part – An Interview with Marie-Claire Aoun, chair of Gas for Climate

Release date: April 23, 2021

“With the EU reaching a historical deal this week on increasing the EU’s 2030 emissions reductions target from 40% to at least 55% and transforming the EU 2050 climate neutrality promise into a binding obligation, a significant step in accelerating the energy transition has been made”, says Marie-Claire Aoun, chair of Gas for Climate and Head of Institutional Relations at Teréga. “Gas for Climate fully supports the increased ambition level and the consortium members are ready to play their part”.

Why was Gas for Climate founded and what has been its impact so far?
Gas for Climate was founded in 2017, the initiative gathers today 11 European TSOs and 2 renewable gas industry associations around the vision that gas infrastructures are crucial to reach carbon neutrality in 2050 at the lowest costs for society. With the support of Guidehouse, Gas for Climate published several studies these last years showing that a smart combination of electricity and gas in an integrated energy system can help to deliver an affordable transition to reach climate neutrality.

Our study published in 2018 and updated in 2019 demonstrated that using higher volumes of renewable gas (2 900 TWh), coupled with a large hydrogen supply and demand for energy could save society around EUR 217 billion per year across the energy system by 2050 compared to a scenario where the share of gas is minimal. This integrated approach of the energy system received wide attention in the European landscape, as it considered the economic and societal costs of the energy transition, an aspect often neglected in the debates.

In the same manner, we also analysed the link between our energy choices and the resilience of the EU industry. Our 2019 study on employment has shown that scaling up renewable gas could generate up to 2.4 million jobs by 2050. Our 2020 European Hydrogen Backbone (EHB) report, describing a hydrogen infrastructure network connecting 10 European countries in 2040 was the result of intense cross-border cooperation between the TSOs. We are very pleased to see the strong interest shown by policymakers and many stakeholders in this study.
The objective of the consortium has always been to provide policy-makers with robust analysis based on economic and technical assessments and provide policy recommendations. We are happy that Gas for Climate is considered now as a key contributor to the discussions on energy transition in Europe.

What’s next for the consortium? Any upcoming new studies or initiatives?
In Europe, the pandemic is seen as a premise of the climate crisis and has highlighted the need to accelerate the energy transition. The European Commission is strongly working on delivering the Green Deal objectives and many Member States placed hydrogen as a crucial pillar in national recovery plans. Gas for Climate supports the new EU Climate Law, increasing the EU’s 2030 emission reduction target from 40% to at least 55% and transforming the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality promise into a binding obligation. This increased target is a significant step in accelerating the energy transition. With this political momentum on hydrogen, and building on the success of the 2020 vision, the EHB has now expanded to 40,000 km of pipelines connecting a total of 21 European countries by 2040. The interest in this work by EU stakeholders is still growing and we are very proud to be at the origin of this initiative.

To make the hydrogen backbone becoming a reality, a regulatory system fit for hydrogen specificities needs to be developed. We are working on a position paper to provide our views on the adequate system to be implemented in order to scale up the hydrogen market.
At the beginning of the year, the consortium advocated in favor of a binding target of 11% of renewable gas in the EU’s final gas consumption by 2030, inspired by article 25 of the RED II directive. We are convinced that such a target would ensure a fair distribution of efforts between Member States while decreasing production costs.

The proposed TEN-E revised regulation gave us some positive signals with the creation of hydrogen infrastructure and smart gas grids categories. We published an expertise-based position paper issuing recommendations to the Commission, notably on the need to evaluate differently the cross-border impact of biomethane projects. In addition to these policy papers and to the close dialogue with policymakers, we are revisiting the potential of hydrogen demand, as we see increased interest by many industrial consumers towards hydrogen, in particular after the announcement of national strategies and recovery plans.

Lastly, Gas for Climate is working on the launch of the Sustainable Biomethane Alliance, aimed at on the one hand at mobilising the biomethane supply chain to create large-scale biomethane projects and improving its competitiveness, while on the other hand helping to foster political support for sustainable biomethane.

It seems at the EU level biomethane, hydrogen and gas infrastructures are seen as part of the solution to reach climate neutrality. How is this in France?
The French energy system has strong specificities in comparison to other European countries given the important role of nuclear in our electricity mix. While our system benefits from low-carbon electricity, it has to face several challenges related to the increased share of renewable energy and to the operating life of our nuclear plants. The debate on energy transition in France has been focusing a lot on electricity. Our low-carbon national strategy is only built on one scenario, considering a very high level of electrification in all the sectors of the economy and very low levels of gas consumption in 2050. In an environment full of uncertainty and determined by the need to accelerate the energy transition, it is important to keep all the options open…

We should however acknowledge that France has ambitious objectives to develop biomethane on the long term (10% of our gas consumption in 2030). Great work was also done by gas TSOs and DSOs under the umbrella of the French regulator to establish a zoning methodology aiming at minimising the connection cost of biomethane installations to the gas grid after the adoption of a law in 2018 establishing the “right to inject”. The government is however giving negative signals to the gas sector with the decision to submit feed-in tariffs for biomethane production to ambitious costs reduction by 2030 and is also strongly questioning the role of gas in the building sector.
On hydrogen, there is strong political momentum in France after the announcement of 7 billion euros by 2030 in the recovery plan dedicated to hydrogen. This is excellent news, but unfortunately, the debate once again is opposing electricity and gas players.
The sector integration and the joint planification between gas and electricity systems is progressing very slowly in France, albeit deeply needed in order to minimise the costs of our energy transition to the final consumer.

What motivates you personally as chair of the consortium?
This year is a crucial year for gas and hydrogen legislation in Brussels, in order to decarbonise the gas market and make it compatible with the Green deal objectives. For the last 20 years, the main focus of the European gas community was to build a common market with a strong level of security of supply. Huge investments were made to build an integrated network delivering to the final consumer a competitive and secure source of energy. This is a great success of the European energy policy!

I am deeply convinced that, to achieve energy transition, we need to minimise the costs for the end consumer and consider as much as possible existing assets. We need also to take into consideration the economic, industrial, climate and social benefits of our energy choices.
It is a real privilege for me to deliver this message as Chair of the consortium in 2021. Gas for Climate will continue to provide analysis showing that biomethane and hydrogen have significant externalities, going well beyond the energy system and can contribute to meet our decarbonisation goals, while strengthening our industry and economy.

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  1. Sequential cropping is the cultivation of a second crop before or after the harvest of main food or feed crop on the same agricultural land during an otherwise fallow period. Sequential cropping does not impact existing food or feed markets as no existing food or feed is used for biogas.
  2. The deployment of energy crops should be prioritised on abandoned and degraded land.
  3. Municipal solid waste is first pre-processed into refuse derived fuel (RDF). Non-combustible materials such as glass and metals are removed from the waste, leaving biogenic material and plastics.
  4. Gas for Climate (2021), The future role of biomethane (Link)
  5. Dutch TTF natural gas price (Link)
  6. Gas for Climate (2021), The future role of biomethane (Link)
  7. EBA (2021), Gasification – A Sustainable Technology for Circular Economies (Link)
  8. Gas for Climate (2021), The future role of biomethane (Link)
  9. Biomethane replaces mainly natural gas, with a lifecycle emission of about 75 g CO2eq/MJ, and partially diesel (and other fuels) with a lifecycle emission of 95 g CO2eq/MJ or above.
  10. 350 TWh on basis of gross calorific value equals 315 TWh on basis of net calorific value, or 1,134 PJ. The 100 g CO2eq/MJ emission reduction is expressed on basis of Lower Heating Value (=net calorific value). 1,134 PJ * 97 g/MJ = 113 Mtonne CO2eq emissions avoided.
  11. IEA Bioenergy (2020): Production of food grade sustainable CO2 from a large biogas facility (Link)
  12. Based on current EU average salaries in this sector
  13. Gas for Climate (2022) Biomethane production potentials in the EU (Link)
  14. Gas for Climate (2022) Biomethane production potentials in the EU (Link)
  15. European Commission (2018). In-depth analysis in support of the Commission Communication COM (2018) 773. A Clean Planet for all. A European long-term strategic vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate neutral economy.
  16. Eurostat (2022) Natural gas supply statistics (Link)
  17. Gas for Climate (2022) Biomethane production potentials in the EU (Link)
  18. European Commission (2022), Commission Staff Working Document, SWD(2022) 230 final, Implementing the REPowerEU Action Plan: Investment needs, hydrogen accelerator, and achieving the bio-methane targets (Link)
  1. Eurostat (2020), Final energy consumption by sector, EU, 2020 (Link)
  2. Feedstocks refer to raw materials fed into a process for conversion into another product
  3. The Guardian (2021), Why it’s so hard to electrify shipping and aviation (Link)
  4. Commission (2020), Energy efficiency in buildings (Link)
  5. Eurostat (2020), Final energy consumption in the residential sector by use (Link)
  6. Gas for Climate (2019), The optimal role for gas in a net-zero emissions energy system (Link)
  7. DG ENER (2018) Request for services n° ENER/B2/2018-260 – Potentials of sector coupling for the EU natural gas sector – Assessing regulatory barriers.
  8. Sector coupling: how can it be enhanced in the EU to foster grid stability and decarbonise? (Link)
  9. European Commission (2020). A hydrogen strategy for a climate-neutral Europe (Link)
  10. European Commission (2022). Commission Staff Working Document, SWD (2022) 230 final, Implementing the REPowerEU Action Plan: Investment needs, hydrogen accelerator, and achieving the bio-methane targets (Link)
  11. Gas for Climate recently assesses the options the facilitate the 10 Mt import target by 2030. Gas for Climate (2022), Facilitating hydrogen imports from non-EU countries (Link)
  12. Gas for Climate (2022) Assessing the benefits of a pan-European hydrogen transmission system (Link)
  13. Gas for Climate (2023). Assessing the benefits of a pan-European hydrogen transmission infrastructure (Link)
  14. Guidehouse (2020) European Hydrogen Backbone (Link)
  15. Gas for Climate (2023). Assessing the benefits of a pan-European hydrogen transmission infrastructure (Link)
  16. Recharge (2022). ‘From niche to scale’ | EU launches €3bn European Hydrogen Bank with a bang but keeps quiet about the details (accessed in September 2022). (Link)
  17. Gas for Climate (2023). Assessing the benefits of a pan-European hydrogen transmission infrastructure (Link)
  18. Gas Infrastructure Europe (2021). Picturing the value of underground gas storage to the European hydrogen system (Link)
  19. Guidehouse (2020) European Hydrogen Backbone (Link)
  1. European Commission (2022). Commission Staff Working Document, SWD (2022) 230 final, Implementing the REPowerEU Action Plan: Investment needs, hydrogen accelerator, and achieving the bio-methane targets (Link)
  2. Gas for Climate recently assesses the options the facilitate the 10 Mt import target by 2030. Gas for Climate (2022), Facilitating hydrogen imports from non-EU countries (Link)
  3. Gas for Climate (2019). The optimal role for gas in a net-zero emissions energy system (Link)
  4. EHB (2021) Analysing future demand, supply, and transport of hydrogen. (Link)
  5. Gas for Climate (2019). The optimal role for gas in a net-zero emissions energy system (Link)
  6. Gas for Climate (2019). Job creation by scaling up renewable gas in Europe. (Link)
  7. This is without accounting for additional measures such as energy efficiency and overall demand reduction.
  8. As the natural gas consumption is supposed to significantly decline by 2050, most of natural gas imports could be replaced by domestically produced biomethane.
  9. Part of the 666 TWh could be supplied by blue hydrogen, i.e. by applying carbon capture and storage technologies on hydrogen production from natural gas. Blue hydrogen could help to accelerate market and infrastructure development as a complementary measure to green hydrogen. However, blue hydrogen would not help with reducing natural gas import dependency of the EU
  10. EHB (2021) Analysing future demand, supply, and transport of hydrogen. (Link)
  11. Gas for Climate (2022) Biomethane production potentials in the EU. (Link)
    Gas for Climate (2023). Assessing the benefits of a pan-European hydrogen transmission network (Link)
  12. Gas for Climate (2023). Assessing the benefits of a pan-European hydrogen transmission network (Link)
  13. Gas for Climate (2022) Facilitating hydrogen imports from non-EU countries. (Link)
  14. Gas for Climate (2023). Assessing the benefits of a pan-European hydrogen transmission network (Link)
  15. Gas for Climate (2023). Assessing the benefits of a pan-European hydrogen transmission network (Link)
  16. Gas for Climate (2023). Assessing the benefits of a pan-European hydrogen transmission network (Link)

End-use decarbonization and energy system integration

Renewable gas can be massively scaled up by 2050. Biomethane should be allocated based on the highest societal value. Hydrogen will be used in hard-to-decarbonise sectors – in industry as feedstock and for high-temperature heating, in the building sector, in power system balancing on long-time scales (e.g. hydrogen peaking plants), and in mobility applications, either as hydrogen or hydrogen-based synthetic fuel (aviation, maritime, heavy-trucking). Hydrogen is a prime candidate to facilitate sector coupling and fits well into the efforts for increased electrification by providing long-term storage and possibly also dispatchable power generation.

Energy security of supply

A substantial part of the current gas imports from Russia (155 bcm in 2021) can be replaced by domestic biomethane production (35 bcm) and renewable hydrogen production and import (50 bcm) by 2030. At the European level, supply potential is sufficient to meet the demand for renewable gases at all time scales (2030, 2040, and 2050), subject to acceleration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) build-out beyond current targets. Individual regions might experience an abundance or lack of sufficient renewable energy and accelerated development of the European Hydrogen Backbone will help reconcile these differences can help to reconcile these differences.

Climate action and meeting climate goals

Gas for Climate fully supports the Fit for 55 package, aimed at a 55% reduction in European emissions by 2030 and the accelerated goals under REPowerEU. Gas for Climate also promotes a target 35 bcm of biomethane and 20 Mt of hydrogen in the European Union by 2030. Scaling up of renewable hydrogen (deployment of electrolysis) and biomethane (driven in large by sequential cropping) production is possible. Renewable gases are the solution in removing barriers to decarbonisation and creating the conditions for a more cost-effective transition. Policymakers are to adapt the European Union’s regulatory framework so that the production of renewable and low-carbon gases is incentivised, and gas infrastructure can fully unleash its great potential in a future integrated energy system.