The Chairman of Enagás and Chairman of the Foundation for Energy and Environmental Sustainability (Funseam), Antonio Llardén, stressed the key role of hydrogen in Europe's future strategy. "Renewable hydrogen is the perfect meeting point for Europe's green, industrial and strategic autonomy agenda", he said, highlighting Spain's strategic role as a hub, during the opening of the 13th Funseam International Business Symposium "Europe: Path towards energy sustainability" held on 3 February at the headquarters of Foment del Treball Nacional in Barcelona.
During his speech, Antonio Llardén pointed out that "Europe needs to commit to its strategic autonomy and Spain can play a key role in the consolidation of a sustainable energy model".
In this sense, he stated that "it is essential to have what we call renewable gases, such as hydrogen, biofuels and synthetic fuels, because electrification and renewable energy generation alone will not completely solve the energy challenge".
In his words, decarbonisation, and renewable hydrogen, have become the levers that can strengthen both Europe's strategic autonomy and its industrial competitiveness. "If we strengthen Europe's energy sovereignty, we will also strengthen our technological sovereignty and our industrial sovereignty," he said.
Llardén stressed the need for decarbonisation to become a competitive advantage to ensure the success of the energy transition. "To take advantage of this competitiveness in the future European hydrogen market, infrastructures that connect production and demand are vital," he noted, referring to the European H2med corridor and the Spanish Hydrogen Backbone.
