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Italy has formally transposed the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive III (RED III) into national law, reinstating binding targets for renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO), including renewable hydrogen, in both industry and transport. The implementing decree, dated January 9 and published in the Official Gazette on January 20, will enter into force on February 4. In doing so, the government has followed the EU text to the letter, confirming that Italy will apply the same green hydrogen mandates set at European level.

The move closes a politically sensitive chapter that opened last autumn, when the RFNBO targets unexpectedly disappeared from an earlier draft of the decree submitted to the Council of Ministers. At the time, H2IT publicly criticised the omission. The government later explained that the Court of Auditors had raised concerns over the proposed financial coverage — in particular the reliance on ETS revenues, judged too unpredictable — while the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) reiterated its political commitment to restoring the targets. That commitment has now been delivered.

In the final text, Article 8 explicitly links hydrogen incentives to ETS revenues, stating that “from 2026, an annual share of the proceeds deriving from the auctioning of the emission allowances of CO₂ (referred to in Article 23 of Legislative Decree 9 June 2020, No. 47), under the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Safety, is aimed as a priority to incentive measures functional to the achievement of the objectives of use of renewable fuels of non-biological origin, including renewable hydrogen.” This provision resolves the funding question that had stalled the earlier draft and anchors RFNBO support within Italy’s climate finance framework.

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