Biomethane Is Ready. Is Brussels?

Eleven European industry groups demand EU action on biomethane, warning high energy costs are already forcing industrial output cuts

29 May 2026

Eleven major European industry associations published a joint declaration on 24 March 2026, calling on EU leaders to place biomethane at the centre of the bloc's reindustrialisation and energy security strategy. Signatories spanned chemicals, paper, fertilisers, glass, shipping, and biogas, a cross-sector alignment Brussels has rarely seen around a single fuel.

Brussels already produces 22 billion cubic metres of biomethane and biogas annually. Scaling that figure, the groups argued, does not require the infrastructure investment that hydrogen or expanded electrification would demand. Biomethane travels through gas networks already in place, making it faster to deploy and cheaper to expand than most low-carbon alternatives.

The immediate industrial case was explicit. Sectors including chemicals, pulp and paper, and maritime shipping have already cut output in response to high energy prices and rising carbon costs. For those industries, biomethane was framed not as a future option but as a present fix.

Ten priority actions anchored the declaration. Removing certification and trading barriers, harmonising national support schemes, and widening gas grid access were prominent. Signatories also asked EU institutions to formally count biomethane production toward REPowerEU's 2030 target of 35 billion cubic metres per year.

Regulatory fragmentation across Member States remains the sharpest obstacle.

Positioned deliberately within the EU Clean Industrial Deal debate, the declaration casts biomethane as a reindustrialisation instrument rather than a climate measure alone. Whether that framing moves policymakers before the 2030 window narrows will determine whether Europe's renewable gas capacity feeds an industrial recovery or remains largely untapped.