Shipping Sunshine Series – Hydrogen Strategies for Government and Businesses: Where Are We? (Part II)

Climate change and net-zero commitments continue to drive the unprecedented political and business momentum for green hydrogen across the globe. Since Japan launched the world’s first national hydrogen strategy in 2017, we are witnessing accelerated developments across Europe, Asia Pacific, the Americas, and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries in support of the green energy transition.

To highlight some numbers:

• Approximately 53 national hydrogen strategies have been released or are in development.
• Over 500 projects have been announced globally worth more than US$500 billion in investment.
• Over US$130 trillion of private capital was committed to transform the economy to a net-zero future by the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net-Zero (GFANZ).

Not all roadmaps are equal.

There are a number of geopolitical and geoeconomic factors shaping these national hydrogen strategies – the nuances across these policies and strategies a reflection of each countries’ geography, energy priorities and ambition to become large-scale exporters, importers and/or technological leaders.

Whilst mitigating climate change is at the fore or a ‘desired outcome’ in many of these strategies, only Portugal has the regulatory measures in place for a “green-hydrogen-now” implementation of its hydrogen strategy. Not far behind, Chile, Italy, New Zealand, and Spain also have the aspirations and all the regulatory measures in place i.e. hydrogen certifications, fossil-fuel penalties and exclusive renewable hydrogen enablement, but may still have extended timelines to phase out fossil fuels and/or may consider blue hydrogen in the transition phase.

It is important to note that despite wide recognition that renewable hydrogen is the preferred hydrogen for its low GHG emissions, the current international trade law requires that green hydrogen should not be treated preferably compared to fossil-fuel hydrogen according to the principles of non-discrimination.

Notwithstanding, in the Working Paper – National Hydrogen Strategies the World Energy Council identifies four key strategic goals common to most of these national hydrogen strategies (with varying levels of priority):

• emission reduction
• diversification and security of energy supply
• fostering of economic growth
• integration of renewables

The table below highlights the key findings of these strategies.

Source: Working Paper – National Hydrogen Strategies (World Energy Council, September 2021)

The many roads to hydrogen – frontrunners.

In the recently published National Hydrogen Strategies, KPMG identifies a group of four ‘front-runners’ or potential ‘world leaders’ in developing policy initiatives, technology and export facilities to promote clean hydrogen value chains – Germany (European Commission), Australia, Japan, and South Korea.

Source: National Hydrogen Strategies (KPMG, 2021)

A current list of hydrogen policy documents can be accessed through ITM Power’s Global Hydrogen Strategies interactive map and CSIRO’s HyResource summary briefs (information current as of June 2022).

… stay tuned for our next Shipping Sunshine edition featuring a spotlight on Australia’s Hydrogen Strategy, policies, and latest developments. Don’t forget to subscribe to our THINK TANK by PIT newsletter!

FURTHER READING:

National Hydrogen Strategies (KPMG, 2021)

Working Paper – National Hydrogen Strategies (World Energy Council, September 2021)

The Future of Hydrogen – Analysis (International Energy Agency, June 2019)

How Green Are the National Hydrogen Strategies? (Cheng W, Lee S., Sustainability 14, February 2022)

Hydrogen for Net-Zero (Hydrogen Council, McKinsey & Company, November 2021)

About: Nur Sidki Gomez is a Board Member and Head of International Policy at Professionals in International Trade (PIT). Nur brings 18+ years consultancy experience in foreign direct investment attraction, trade and developing whole-of-government strategies to support local emerging industries. A passionate advocate for sector-wide collaboration, Nur’s career in Australia has spanned from managing an agbiotech startup to leading and implementing the technology investment strategy for the Greater Brisbane region, as well as taking a deep dive into all things AI as part of the Queensland AI Hub and former Founding Director of the Australia AI Collective (AAIC). Having previously served as Investment Team Leader, Life Sciences and Agribusiness, for the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) in Germany, Nur has most recently rejoined the agency as Senior Investment Advisor – Europe, Middle East and Africa, at its Austrade office in Brisbane, Queensland. Nur holds a double degree in business administration – a BBA in International Management from the Rotterdam Business School (Netherlands) and a BBA in European Business from the Centro Europeo Superior de Dirección y Administración de Empresas (Spain). A native Spanish and English speaker, Nur is fully fluent in German and is at ease working in French and Bulgarian.