Changes from plenary report to adopted text

32. Calls for the EU and its Member States to include education and training programmes for the local population in their energy partnerships with non-EU countries in order to support the energy transition on the ground and create employment opportunities for local communities; likewise calls for the EU to step up scientific cooperation with developing countries on access to research and renewable energy technologies; believes that the generation matrix of renewable energies should be changed in order to move away from a purely extractivist perspective;

33. Recalls that the 2021 Glasgow Statement on International Public Support for the Clean Energy Transition commits signatories to ending new direct public support for the fossil fuel energy sector; calls for the EU and its Member States to lead by example and to stop financing fossil fuel projects;

Green hydrogen

34. Stresses the crucial role of green hydrogen as a tool to decarbonise the energy system, achieve net-zero emissions worldwide by 2050 and attain the Paris Agreement goals, but recalls the importance of life cycle assessments that take into account the production and transport modes used;

35. Warns against the potential risk of a new ‘green hydrogen curse’ that would foster developing countries’ reliance on exports and could crowd out investments in the development of local energy markets; states that the green hydrogen industry can play a crucial role in the development of resource-rich developing countries if certain factors are present, such as good governance, the implementation and monitoring of a sound legal framework, corruption prevention, functioning rule of law, and transparency with regard to financial flows;

36. Highlights the need to address global infrastructure related to the production, storage, transport, distribution and consumption of green hydrogen, the long-distance transport costs and climate impact, the limited investments and financial capacities and the risks linked to weak institutions and corruption in some developing countries;

37. Calls for the EU to support, notably through the Global Gateway initiative, win-win partnerships that benefit both importing and exporting countries and their populations; calls, to this end, for the EU to support the development of a green hydrogen value chain when it brings equal social and economic benefits to exporting countries, notably in terms of the training and re-skilling of the local population, job creation, the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate industrial activities and access to cleaner mobility and energy;

38. Calls for the EU to support economic diversification and domestic access to electricity and water, with full respect for ecosystems and with a view to reducing excessive reliance on exports of fossil fuels; emphasises that enhanced collaboration between EU and partner country businesses and SMEs, combining the expertise of different like-minded partners, can create a pathway to sound entrepreneurship in the green hydrogen sector;

39. Acknowledges that the expansion of green hydrogen can have negative social and environmental impacts in the Global South, in particular as it relies on mining and the use of raw materials and rare earths, which require large quantities of fresh water and engender water pollution; stresses the importance of developing a global resource governance system that prioritises sustainability, efficiency and circularity, with a view to reducing global demand for virgin materials, while also recognising the challenges in achieving this;

40. Emphasises the need for a systemic approach to assessing the local opportunities and consequences of green hydrogen production for European needs in developing countries; stresses that the EU should ensure the sustainability of the extracted, processed and recycled critical raw materials that are fundamental for hydrogen and the other net-zero technologies;

41. Notes, with concern, the conflicting use of water associated with mining and the development of large-scale renewable energy plants, such as green hydrogen facilities; reaffirms that access to water is a fundamental human right; underlines the necessity of enhancing water infrastructure in regions where mining and renewable energy plants are prominent by investing in water treatment facilities and water recycling systems;

42. Stresses the need to regulate water as a resource for green hydrogen production in a sustainable way, particularly in arid regions, including by implementing regulations that mandate sustainable water sourcing techniques, efficient water usage, and the minimisation of wastewater discharge, so that it does not jeopardise local populations’ access to water or drive up water costs;

43. Notes the proliferation of desalination plants to deal with water scarcity; acknowledges that desalination plants can benefit local communities and the domestic economy, but points out that seawater desalination can have major environmental impacts, in particular on marine biodiversity; calls for the promotion of a sustainable approach to water desalination and of solutions that have no impact on coastal areas, such as deep sea desalination; highlights that reducing water use and recycling or reusing treated wastewater is often less expensive than desalination;

44. Highlights the potential risks of water grabbing and water pollution associated with foreign direct investments in large-scale land acquisitions for renewable energy; calls for the EU and its Member States to enact mandatory water-related due diligence and reporting standards for corporations;

45. Insists that green hydrogen strategies must follow strong social and sustainability standards; calls for the EU to establish appropriate monitoring frameworks in its partnership agreements that allow for the assessment of their broader impact on SDG performance, notably by identifying environmental, social and governance indicators and setting measurable targets; calls for mandatory environmental impact studies to be conducted, including for desalination, and for biodiversity hotspots to be excluded as sites for green hydrogen facilities; believes that green hydrogen production should demonstrate reliance on materials sourced under environmental and human rights standards for extractive activities (for instance, from countries that are signatories to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative);

46. Urges the Commission to set up an inclusive governance framework for partnership agreements that includes civil society organisations to ensure that the ‘no harm’ principle is respected vis-à-vis local communities and that global human rights standards are met;

Scale up funding for a just energy transition

47. Stresses that EU financing for renewable energy should be in line with the principles of equity, sustainability and climate justice, which could comprise, among other things, debt assistance, debt relief and cancellation, debt restructuring and the Loss and Damage Fund;

48. Stresses that investments in renewable hydrogen produced by non-EU countries should be based on international due diligence principles, including but not limited to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct;

49. Calls for the EU and its Member States to increase the amount of Official Development Assistance devoted to the energy sector, especially under Heading 6 of the next multiannual financial framework, and particularly in Africa, while prioritising grants over loans and reorienting financing towards countries with lower rates of access to electricity with the aim of supporting their clean and renewable energy transitions in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

50. Encourages the development of public and private partnerships as well as programmes for facilitating the transfer of knowledge and green technologies; highlights that many African countries’ electricity sectors have specific characteristics (such as sharp growth in demand, small grids, fragile national utilities and customers’ limited ability to pay) that have to be taken into account;

51. Stresses that access to financing for a just energy transition must be simplified and accelerated for developing countries; highlights that the EU can offer innovative solutions to speed up the green transition and increase the global share of renewables; calls, to this end, for the EU and its Member States to consider debt-for-climate swaps so that debtor developing countries can use the owed money to finance climate change adaptation and mitigation projects;

52. Calls, more broadly, for a long-term debt-for-climate swap mechanism to be made operational within the framework of the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative and for IMF Special Drawing Rights to be rechannelled;

53. Calls for the EU and its Member States to increase the funding devoted to helping developing countries to adapt to climate change, making energy systems more resilient against climate risks; underlines the relevance of green energy in agroforestry and climate change adaptation projects, such as the Great Green Wall;

54. Urges the Commission to increase the number of programmes under the Global Gateway initiative that prioritise basic access to electricity and clean cooking, particularly in the countries most in need; stresses the importance of the private sector in scaling up funding for basic access to energy and clean cooking while guaranteeing public access and strengthening national public energy suppliers; calls, to this end, on the Commission to use the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus as an instrument to support private-sector investments in developing countries in order to strengthen the energy infrastructure and provide better access to energy and clean cooking for domestic use;

55. Urges the EU to support developing countries in gradually phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and to focus on efficient, modern and affordable cooking technologies; urges the mobilisation of investments and creating enabling environments to drive growth of a robust clean cooking industry;

56. Calls for the EU and European development finance institutions to: