A new European energy policy paradigm revealed by changes in hydrogen strategies

As energy policy paradigms change, profound shifts in policy goals and instrument logics follow. Therefore, understanding when the energy policy paradigm might be changing is very important for researchers assessing hydrogen policies. Although changes in policy paradigms are infrequent, they are more likely to occur during crises like the 2022 energy crisis. However, most research analyses these changes through long-term, single-country studies that cannot reveal shifts in recent years and across countries. To overcome this limitation, this article explores a new approach to identifying changes in the policy paradigm. It compares changes in policy goals, instrument logics, and targeted sectors across twenty-one strategic policy documents for hydrogen published by the European Commission and eight Member States between 2020 and 2024. Our findings show that European hydrogen strategies have changed significantly following the energy crisis. Across the EU, there is a shift toward more security policy goals, coercive instrument logics, and infrastructure as a targeted sector, while economic goals and incentive-based logics remain the most common. Member States and the European Commission align in the direction of high-level changes, but discrepancies emerge about more specific aspects, like targeted mobility sub-sectors, which are also visible in how each country positions itself about hydrogen’s international dimension. These changes reveal a new European energy policy paradigm that evolves from the prevailing paradigm rather than entirely rejecting it, with profound implications for European hydrogen policies and beyond.