European Parliament on Janaury 17, 2018 approved the recast-ed Directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources COM/2016/0767 by rapporteur José Blanco López.

For the first time even green hydrogen can be credited fully to the quota for the use of renewable fuels: hydrogen is mentioned in Article 19 regarding extensions of a guarantee of origin, which will now concern also renewable gas, including hydrogen, in the calculation of the share of energy from renewable sources in Article 7. However H2 is not double counted in GHG reduction quota as are second generation biofuels to facilitate market uptake. For hydrogen these quota should be around 2,5 or 3 to force market entry.

The Directive, among others, sets binding targets for the share of renewable energy sources in the final energy consumption of each Member State. MEPs voted for an 35% improvement in energy efficiency, a minimum 35% share of energy from renewable sources in total consumption of energy, and a 12% share of energy from renewable sources in transport, by 2030.

Results of the final vote have been +492, -88, 0 107 MEPs.

Link to the final adopted text can be found here.

Additionally, Governance of the Energy Union file COM(2016)0759 has also been approved.  The bill includes a “carbon budget” for a first time. The final goal is to achieve zero net carbon emissions by 2050.