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Die Gas- und Wasserstoffwirtschaft e.V.

Als Stim­me der Gas- und Was­ser­stoff­wirt­schaft tre­ten wir für ein kli­ma­neu­tra­les und re­si­lien­tes Ener­gie­sys­tem ein.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Maroš Šefčovič (Commissioner) and

11 Nov 2025 · EU-US-China Relations in the Gas and Energy Sector

Meeting with Christian Ehler (Member of the European Parliament)

13 Oct 2025 · EU Politik allgemein, MFR und Landwirtschaft

Meeting with Engin Eroglu (Member of the European Parliament)

18 Mar 2024 · EU-Energiepolitik und ihre Auswirkungen auf die Gas- und Wasserstoffwirtschaft

Meeting with Christian Ehler (Member of the European Parliament)

25 Jan 2024 · NZIA

Meeting with Christian Ehler (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

22 Aug 2023 · NZIA // STEP

Response to Evaluation of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive

20 Mar 2019

Zukunft ERDGAS sees the objectives of the AFI directive as utterly important to build up a CNG station infrastructure in Germany. However, the current implementation in Germany is not supporting a sufficient development of CNG infrastructure. Generally, Germany does not meet the recommended infrastructure targets of the AFI directive. In consequence, the EU commission already initiated infringement proceedings against Germany. Originally, Germany committed to 913 CNG filling stations (no. of stations in 2016) beyond 2020. However, in the meantime, CNG filling stations declined to only 852. The process of further closures is ongoing. Therefore, we currently perceive severe threats for the future compliance for CNG with the AFI directive in Germany. In March 2019 the German CNG market is supplied by about 852 CNG stations, of which more than 100 stations are providing 100% biomethane and are hence already able to contribute to a low-emissions mobility today. Nevertheless, the recent legislative developments on a European level are posing severe risks to the viability of the German CNG infrastructure: The chance to include a well-to-wheel approach in the CO2 regulation for the OEMs of passenger cars was missed in October 2018. This would have been an important chance for gas to consider the emission savings potential of green and decarbonized gases, like biomethane, synthetic natural gas and hydrogen. In consequence, OEMs do not have any incentives in developing and marketing natural gas vehicles. Finally, Mercedes, Volvo, Ford and Opel stopped their activities offering NGVs. Also, the sales of gas for transport have declined for the past five years. Not only the average biomethane proportion declined from 24 % to 12 %, but also the total amount of CNG-stations dropped by 71 stations from 923 in 2013 to 852 in February 2019. To sum it up, the legislative framework (no well-to-wheel approach in CO2 regulation for passenger cars) is a preferential treatment of electric vehicles, counteracting the targets of the AFI directive, especially for CNG. Nevertheless, despite a record level of renewable energy production, it is currently a misbelief that electric vehicles are green per se, since in 2018 more than 35 % of German gross electricity generation resulted from lignite and hard coal. The current average carbon footprint for the German electricity mix is 537g CO2/kWh, well above the European average. Since coal will not be fully phased out in Germany until 2038, a green electricity mix will still pose a challenge for the upcoming two decades. Hence, it is important that alternative fuels like natural gas (LNG, CNG) will be acknowledged considering their potential to already be close to CO2-neutral (biomethane) and to become greener in the medium to long-term (hydrogen, synthetic natural gases etc.).
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Meeting with Günther Oettinger (Commissioner)

9 Jul 2018 · sustainable mobility / natural gas mobility