Lukas Wernert, European Union Fellow for the 2023-24 academic year

Title

Sharing insights on EU hydrogen policy developments

Time

1:40pm - 3:00pm

Location

1605 Tilia, Room 1103, West Village

Abstract

Renewable (and -low carbon) hydrogen will be one of the pillars of decarbonising the EU’s energy system, in line with the EU’s fit for 55 agenda (reducing EU greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% compared to 1990). To achieve this, the EU has is putting in place a set of complementary policies to promote hydrogen-related projects, stimulate demand and increase hydrogen production capacity, designing an enabling framework, and foster international cooperation. The legal framework is close to complete, and the first set of priority infrastructure (pipelines, terminals, storages, electrolysers) have been identified. The focus lies now on getting projects off the ground.

Biographical Sketch

Lukas Wernert joined the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies as a European Union Fellow during the academic year 2023-2024. Lukas has been seconded by the European Commission’s directorate-general for energy (comparable to the US Department of Energy). In his latest post he lead the first ever development of a trans-European hydrogen grid. Lukas has long standing experience in EU policy development and implementation in different areas (energy, justice and home affairs, external relations). During his fellowship Lukas will research on effective policy support measures to upscale hydrogen across the whole value chain in the US and the EU. Lukas holds Master’s degrees from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (Austria) and the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium).