GasNaturally’s feedback to the EU Renewable Energy Rules Review

21 September 2020

GasNaturally welcomes the Commission’s Roadmap for the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). In light of the European Green Deal and the 2030 Climate Target Plan recently published by the European Commission, GasNaturally members reiterate the importance to recognise that gas plays an important role in achieving EU climate ambitions.

In the recently published Energy System Integration and Hydrogen Strategies, the European Commission stressed the importance of creating a more efficient and cleaner energy system. Revising the RED II will be crucial to reach this objective. Our industry would like to provide a list of key recommendations to ensure that this goal is achieved in an ambitious yet realistic and cost-effective way:

The contribution and the potential of all types of decarbonised, low-carbon and renewable gases should be acknowledged, including biogas, biomethane, synthetic gas, renewable, low-carbon and decarbonised hydrogen as well as bioLPG.
Renewable hydrogen, low-carbon hydrogen from natural gas and decarbonised gas will be essential to decarbonise all sectors of the EU economy.
To this end, designing a forward looking regulatory framework to ensure renewable, low-carbon and decarbonised gases can fully contribute to the achievement of the EU climate ambitions. This should be achieved by enabling all production technologies delivering significant GHG emission reductions.
Establish a comprehensive terminology covering both renewable, low-carbon and decarbonised gases and apply a consistent EU wide methodology on a GHG life-cycle basis enabling a transparent comparison of different energy sources.
Create a robust certification system for renewable, low-carbon and decarbonised gases as part of the provisions on Guarantees of Origin under RED II.

GasNaturally's complete recommendations for a successful EU Renewable Energy Rules Review are included in our response to the initiative's Roadmap (link and attached).

GasNaturally is a partnership of eight associations (Eurogas, Natural & bio Gas Vehicle Association (NGVA Europe), European Gas Research Group (GERG), International Gas Union (IGU), International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP), Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), Liquid Gas Europe (LGE) and Marcogaz) that together represent the whole European gas value chain. Our members are involved in gas exploration and production, transmission, distribution, wholesale and retail operations, as well as gas in transport.