The Netherlands is looking into expanding its renewable fuels of non-biological origin – RFNBO transport quotas to 2040, its climate minister stated, which could provide green hydrogen producers with longer-term demand assurance.
Setting targets beyond 2030 would be reasonable for the country, Stientje van Veldhoven–van der Meer told European Hydrogen Week.
The minister’s comments come in the face of a leaked European Commission document that appears to present plans to abolish the post-2030 binding RFNBO targets.
Stientje van Veldhoven–van der Meer said, “We are in conversations with the Ministry for Transport. I think this is the kind of demand stimulation that gives very clear indications over time for a large sector.”
Earlier in 2026, the Netherlands enacted transport RFNBO quotas, starting at 0.05% in 2026 and increasing to 1.45% by 2030 in land transport, with renewable hydrogen utilized in oil refining allowed to contribute almost 1.07 percentage points of the final target.
The government initially didn’t set any targets beyond 2030.
Van Veldhoven-van der Meer gave no indication of when an action might be taken on extending the quotas.
But she touted the effect of the quotas, which enable renewable fuel suppliers to create standardized credits that can be sold to obligated fuel suppliers.
Giving reference to the hydrogen refueling company Fountain Fuel recently slashing its pump prices by 42%, Van Veldhoven–van der Meer said, “We just had the first company in the Netherlands offering hydrogen for just below €10/kg for transport, and they said they can do that because they calculated the avoided cost of carbon.”
When questioned on her opinions about the Commission paper leak, she said that “Whenever the Commission is proposing ways to make it function better, we will support it. If we feel that is something that could weaken it, we would be critical. We think some optimization can actually help, but certain weaknesses we are critical about.”
Unpredictability over post-2030 obligations has sparked worries among a number of European hydrogen developers and electrolyzer manufacturers, who say binding targets are needed in order to support investment in new production capacity.
Apparently, Germany has also backed the continuation of the measures beyond 2030, with RFNBO transport quotas already in place until 2040.