Nineteen countries pledge to quadruple use of sustainable fuels — including hydrogen — by 2035
Source：hydrogeninsight
A total of nineteen countries have now signed a pledge to expand the use of sustainable fuels, including those made with hydrogen, by at least four times by 2035, compared to 2024 levels.
But environmental groups have slammed the proposal, currently being promoted at the on-going COP30 conference in Brazil, as “dubious”.
The Brazil-led “Belém 4X Pledge on Sustainable Fuels” commits signatories to taking “comprehensive domestic actions” to achieve its goal of quadrupling sustainable fuel use, which it defines as “biogases and biofuels, renewable, clean/zero emission and low carbon hydrogen and its derivatives including e-fuels and e-methane”.
These actions include incorporating ambitious sustainable fuels policies in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) — mandatory plans submitted to the UN as part of the Paris Agreement.
Brazil, Japan, Italy, Canada, India and the Netherlands are among the nineteen countries signed up so far, according to S&P Global.
The declaration was launched last month by Brazil, which is hosting COP30 in the Amazonian city of Belém.
It emphasises the need for clarification on (and strengthening of) subsidy programmes for sustainable fuels, as well as the alignment of national and international carbon accounting frameworks.
It also commits signatories to ensure that any sustainable fuel scale-up is conducted in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.
However the Climate Action Network (CAN) — a network of 1,800 environmental groups across 130 countries — slammed the pledge, calling the use of sustainable fuels “dubious” and urging nations not to sign up.
CAN said it only supports the use of renewable hydrogen made with co-located wind and solar, and even then the use of it should be limited.
“With few exceptions and targeted applications, bioenergy and hydrogen fuels can only play a marginal role in the energy transition,” CAN said. “Scaling up these technologies promotes further extractivism [campaigning focused on the extraction of fossil fuels] particularly in the Global South, with hydrogen infrastructure and bioenergy crop growth and incursions to natural ecosystems posing serious risks to socio-economic wellbeing, human rights and to the climate itself.”
“Hydrogen and bioenergy fuel technologies are expensive and their supply chains uncertain,” added Marie Cosquer, an analyst for food systems and climate crisis for international charity Action Against Hunger.
“Direct electrification is far more efficient and cost-effective in its use of renewable power and should be prioritised over the use of hydrogen, hydrogen derivatives or biofuels, such as in the cases of home heating, water heating, power generation and road transport.
“Energy sufficiency measures, particularly in rich countries, as well as energy efficiency measures should be prioritised to minimise energy and hydrogen demand.”