Periodic Reporting for period 1 - THERESA (Training for a Hydrogen Economy based Renewable Energy Society in the Anthropocene)
Período documentado: 2022-12-01 hasta 2024-11-30
THERESA (Training for a Hydrogen Economy Based Renewable Energy Society in the Anthropocene) is the first European MSCA doctoral network dedicated to developing legal expertise in the field of the hydrogen economy. Positioned at the intersection of law, energy policy, and environmental sustainability, THERESA addresses the pressing need for regulatory clarity and legal harmonisation to support the energy transition. Set within the socio-ecological context of the Anthropocene, an era marked by planetary transformations driven by fossil fuel exploitation, THERESA aligns with the broader framework of climate constitutionalism. It explores the legal and political changes required to facilitate the transition to renewable energy, as envisioned in the European Green Deal. Hydrogen, as a key enabler of decarbonisation, is at the core of this transition, yet its deployment is hindered by regulatory fragmentation, environmental constraints, and societal acceptance challenges. The EU is promoting the whole value chain of hydrogen and deploying “hydrogen valleys” to accelerate the sector’s development. However, the transition faces complex legal, technical, and societal barriers, including unclear legal frameworks, public concerns and sustainability challenges related to the hydrogen industry. THERESA seeks to address these issues by: 1. Mapping and reducing legal fragmentation in hydrogen regulation. 2. Promoting the sustainable production and use of hydrogen. 3. Fostering societal engagement and acceptance of hydrogen technologies. Through a doctrinal, empirical, and comparative legal research approach, THERESA will generate actionable knowledge.
The THERESA project has made significant progress in research and training on the legal aspects of the hydrogen economy, producing high-quality scientific outputs and equipping doctoral candidates with strong legal and interdisciplinary skills. A key achievement has been its comprehensive training programme, delivered across the three THERESA Consortium universities, alongside additional transferable skills courses at home institutions and internationally. A major milestone was the first THERESA Network Conference, which brought together over fifty international experts. Doctoral candidates presented their research and led discussions on Hydrogen Infrastructure and Trade, International and Comparative Hydrogen Regulation, and Stakeholder Participation. The scientific impact has exceeded expectations. In the first year, publications in prestigious open-access journals and books doubled compared to initial projections. Research findings have been widely disseminated at international conferences and workshops, fostering knowledge exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration.
At the time of the THERESA project’s inception in 2021, research on green hydrogen was predominantly focused on technical and economic aspects, with limited legal scholarship on the subject. Hydrogen regulation in the EU was governed by a fragmented framework of directives, with no dedicated legal instruments addressing its production, trade, or integration. Since then, the THERESA project has made significant contributions to advancing legal scholarship on hydrogen regulation, filling critical knowledge gaps and offering practical solutions to existing legal challenges. The research has produced groundbreaking insights into hydrogen regulation and governance. It has mapped the legal fragmentation affecting hydrogen infrastructure, highlighted the regulatory barriers to integrating hydrogen into national energy and climate policies, and examined hydrogen certification schemes to facilitate global trade. A new conceptual framework, the Hydrogen Prism, has been developed to analyse regulatory cohesion, risk mitigation, and compliance in the heavy-duty transport sector. The project has also pioneered legal research on citizen participation in hydrogen governance, revealing the limitations of the current “one-size-fits-all” approach and advocating for an equity-based legal framework to ensure a just energy transition. Furthermore, circular economy principles have been applied to hydrogen production and infrastructure, identifying legal barriers that hinder waste valorisation, resource efficiency, and sustainable water use. The project has also explored cross-sectoral regulation, providing a framework for regulatory sandboxes in hydrogen valleys, which could serve as experimental spaces for legal innovation and cross-sectoral integration. These findings have immediate policy relevance, particularly in light of recent regulatory developments. The comparative EU-US analysis conducted within THERESA offers valuable insights for regulatory learning and harmonisation. Moreover, the project has identified that current EU RFNBO requirements may create unintended barriers to international trade, necessitating adjustments to align with the EU’s hydrogen import objectives. By combining doctrinal, empirical, and comparative legal methodologies, the THERESA project is setting a new benchmark in hydrogen regulation research. Its results provide a robust legal foundation to support the EU’s vision for a sustainable, legally coherent, and globally integrated hydrogen economy.