The Hydrogen Economy

The EU Green Hydrogen Parliamentary Initiative is an unprecedented bipartisan political coalition which will serve as a vehicle to create a European partnership for a hydrogen economy.

On September 12, 2005 a parliamentary leadership group was announced to promote a Green Hydrogen Economy across the EU. At a press conference held at the EU Parliament in Brussels, 50 European Union parliamentary leaders of all 6 major European political parties — The Popular party, Party of the European Socialists (PES), Alliance of the Liberal Democrats of Europe (ALDE), Green group, European Unity of the Left (GUE), and Union of European Nations (UEN) — have made the commitment to push ahead on plans to make the EU the first renewable energy hydrogen economy in the world.

The political coalition have pledged their support of a long-term multilevel initiative designed to make the transition out of the oil era into a green hydrogen economy, and represents the broadest and most diverse group of Europe's parliamentarians ever to come together around the renewable energy agenda. The Green Hydrogen MP coalition will be establishing task forces with civil society organizations, the business community, organized labor and academia to advance public/private initiatives to help usher in a green hydrogen economy over the course of the next twenty-five years.

The European Parliamentary Leadership Group for the Hydrogen Economy includes the President of European Parliament, Josep Borrell, and Jo Leinen, leading environmental expert in the SDP of Germany. The European Parliament Hydrogen Initiative is also being supported by the EU Environmental Commissioner, Stavros Dimas. Moreover, the European Parliament Hydrogen Group is led by Dr. Vittorio Prodi of the Liberal party, a world-class physicist with 40 years of experience on energy-related issues — and is an expert on Hydrogen Energy.

In addition, major European environmental NGOs — Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Climate Action Network (CAN), and the European Environment Bureau — as well as the European Renewable Energies Federation (EREF) announced their enthusiastic endorsement of the Green Hydrogen Parliamentary Initiative and pledged to work closely with the EU Parliament to advance legislation, both in the EU parliament and across the 25 member states. Jorgo Riss, representing Greenpeace and the other major environmental organizations acted as the spokesperson for the environmental NGOs at the parliamentary press conference.

Members of parliament in attendance at the press conference:

• Josep Borrell, the president of the EU Parliament
• Vittorio Prodi, Group leader, member of the EP Liberal Group, environment Committee, and Industrial Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee, Italy
• Claude Turmes, member of the Green Group and of the Environment, Consumers and Public Health Committee (ENVI) and ITRE Committees, coordinator for energy for the Greens, Luxembourg
• Alejo Vidal Quadras, vice president of the European parliament, member of the PPE Group (Christian Democrats), and of the ITRE Committee, Spain
• Umberto Guidoni, member of the GUE/NGL Group (Communist), former NASA Astronaut, member of the ENVI and ITRE Committee, Italy
• Philippe Busquin, member of the PSE (Socialists) former Commissioner for Research, shadow rapporteur for the Socialist Group on the 7th EU Research Framework program, Belgium
• Jo Leinen, president of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, member of the PSE, former secretary general of the European Federalists, Germany
• Karl Heinz Florenz, president of the Environment Committee, member of the PPE Group, Germany
• Enrique Baron Crespo, president of the International Trade Committee, former president of the parliament, former president of the Socialist Group, Spain
• Luisa Morgantini, president of the Development Committee, member of the GUE/NGL, Italy; Graham Watson, president of the Liberal Group ALDE, UK
• Monica Frassoni, co-president of the Green Group, Italy
• Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-president of the Green Group, Germany/France
• Guido Sacconi, member of the ENVI Committee and PSE group, draft person for the REACH report, Italy

*In addition, the EU Environmental Commissioner, Stavros Dimas, also attended the press conference.

The major European environmental NGOs - Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Climate Action Network (CAN), and the European Environment Bureau - as well as the European Renewable Energies Federation (EREF) announced their enthusiastic endorsement of the Green Hydrogen Parliamentary Initiative and pledged to work closely with the EU Parliament to advance legislation, both in the EU parliament and across the 25 member states. Jorgo Riss, representing Greenpeace and the other major environmental organizations, acted as the spokesperson for the environmental NGOs at the parliamentary press conference.