A new nuclear energy dispute has arisen between France, Germany, and Spain. According to sources, Paris is upset that Berlin and Madrid haven’t backed its efforts to have nuclear-derived hydrogen classified as ‘green’ in EU law.
The dispute is delaying Europe’s green energy legislation and threatens to come to a head at a European Union summit on Thursday. It could also prevent a multi-billion euro hydrogen pipeline from the Iberian peninsula through France to Central Europe.
The EU’s new renewable energy targets currently place a focus on green hydrogen produced using electricity from renewable sources, but France, which depends on its ageing nuclear fleet to generate electricity, is leading a campaign to count hydrogen made using nuclear power, also known as ‘red’ hydrogen.
Paris is now charging Spain and Germany with breaking promises their leaders allegedly made at conferences in Barcelona and Paris to accept nuclear energy, which is code for ‘low-carbon’ energy, as clean.
Agnes Pannier-Runacher, France’s energy minister, said last week to a small group of reporters that the negotiations over the EU’s new renewable energy targets, which are part of a law known as the RED-3 directive, ‘are not taking a good turn.’
Spain and Germany taking opposing stances in Brussels and breaking their commitments, she said, ‘would not be understandable.’
Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, reluctantly agreed to the hydrogen pipeline between Barcelona and Marseille in October. The agreement was formalised at a summit with Pedro Sanchez, the president of Spain, in Barcelona in January.
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