Renewable hydrogen and synthetic fuels are expected to play a significant role in the evolution of the European energy system, especially in areas where direct electrification is not technically or economically sufficient. In such cases, they make it possible to transform domestic renewable electricity into new energy carriers and feedstocks capable of replacing imported fossil fuels. Their value is therefore not limited to emissions reduction, but also extends to the energy transition, security of supply and the strategic autonomy of the European Union.
However, their large-scale deployment remains constrained by substantial regulatory, technical and economic barriers. The complexity of the regulatory framework, today’s high costs and the scale of the investments required in renewable generation, grids, storage, electrolysis, CO₂ infrastructure and logistics chains show that the transition cannot be immediate or rapid. At the same time, recent energy crises have shown that, in disruptive contexts, the issue is not only the price differential between alternatives, but the effective availability of the energy resource.
The conference will address this dual reality: on the one hand, renewable hydrogen and its derivatives are an essential pathway to reduce Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels from third countries; on the other, their deployment requires a simpler, more pragmatic regulatory framework aligned with the scale of the industrial challenge. All of this without losing sight of the fact that the new technological base of this transition also raises, albeit on a different level, relevant questions of strategic autonomy.