After the German Bundestag elections, politicians must resolutely tackle the restructuring of the economy and society, combined with consistent use of power-to-X technologies, says VDMA Power-to-X for Applications in a recently published press release. The development of a hydrogen economy must be a central task of the future German government.

"The election results clearly show that Germany's voters place climate protection at the top of their agenda," comments Peter Müller-Baum, Managing Director of VDMA Power-to-X for Applications, on the outcome of the Bundestag elections. "Politicians must take a correspondingly determined approach to the restructuring of the economy and society, combined with consistent use of power-to-X technologies, i.e. the conversion of green electricity into other forms of energy," says Müller-Baum. "The development of a hydrogen economy must be a central task of the future German government!" he adds.

Because it is clear that climate neutrality can only succeed with the intensive use of hydrogen and its derivatives. Accordingly, the National Hydrogen Strategy was added to the energy transition policy more than a year ago as a further central pillar. The task now is to stimulate the demand for hydrogen - ideally in those sectors that have the necessary payment power, such as transport, in order to initiate the market ramp-up on a large scale. This could be achieved by means of a correspondingly significant CO2 price, or - presumably more opportune from a social point of view - by allowing eFuels to be counted as part of the CO2 fleet regulation. The private sector investment this would trigger would provide an enormous boost to the market ramp-up. "The sooner clarity is created here, the better for the development of a market," Müller-Baum explains. He stresses: "Liquid and gaseous fuels will continue to be needed in the future, especially in aviation, shipping and road freight transport, as well as in agricultural technology and for construction machinery, and they can also make an important contribution to achieving climate targets in passenger cars. eFuels produced on the basis of green hydrogen enable CO2-neutral propulsion in these segments and are decisive drivers of a comprehensive defossilization of the traffic and transport sector."

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