Ukraine and the EU once again confirmed their commitment on hydrogen cooperation on Thursday, in a new agreement that reaffirmed the plan for an import hydrogen corridor from Ukraine to the EU by 2030, and suggested Ukraine’s gas network should be utilised for renewable gases such as hydrogen and biomethane.
Back in July 2020, long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country had been singled out by the EU as a major potential source of green hydrogen and renewable electricity that Europe would need to meet its zero-emission targets.
While production of hydrogen from electricity is hardly a priority for Ukraine, given that it is at war and has suffered intense Russian bombardments on its energy infrastructure, the country’s top politicians met with EU leaders in Kyiv on Thursday — with air raid sirens ahead of the meeting — and signed a memorandum of understanding entitled Strategic Partnership on Biomethane, Hydrogen and other Synthetic Gases.
The agreement follows up on certain previously stated ambitions, such as the EU’s commitment to building one of its three planned import hydrogen corridors from Ukraine (the others being from the Mediterranean and the North Sea), and the text states that the EU and Ukraine will cooperate to “identify and tackle cross-border infrastructure framework issues, and on quality requirements for biomethane and hydrogen for transport and storage”.
Inside Ukraine, the EU will support the reconstruction of Ukraine’s energy system, including significant expansion of renewable energy production, and “set up a hydrogen market to facilitate the decarbonisation of Ukraine’s energy sector and economy”.
The agreement explicitly mentions that EU and Ukraine will support “the specific needs of the hydrogen sector and to facilitate the integration of renewable gases into the gas network”.
On a policy and legislation level, the EU will work to involve Ukraine in EU-level hydrogen cooperation and help the country implement the EU’s renewables directive and future EU hydrogen legislation, in order to ensure that the two markets are aligned.
