Hydrogen will contribute more than 20% of global decarbonization by 2050

As the United Nations Climate Change Conference convenes in Glasgow, the Hydrogen Council’s coalition of chief executives is calling on world leaders, public and private, to show a concerted effort to materialize announced hydrogen plans around the world. the world to put the world on track towards climate goals.

Hand in hand with electrification, the development of the hydrogen economy is vital to enable deep decarbonisation around the world in a cost-effective and efficient way, enabling countries to achieve their climate goals, drive green growth and create sustainable jobs. To spur the bold action needed, the Hydrogen Council is presenting comprehensive new data on the carbon reduction potential of hydrogen, along with a ready-to-deploy toolbox of instruments and measures to create enabling policy frameworks for renewable hydrogen. and low carbon.

The report Council’s Hydrogen for Net Zero shows that hydrogen can provide the lowest cost decarbonisation solution for more than a fifth of final energy demand by mid-century, contributing to a cumulative reduction of 80 Gt CO₂ , and is therefore an essential solution to reach. the 1.5°C climate scenario.

In the next decade, global demand for low-carbon, renewable hydrogen could grow by 50%. By 2030, this would translate into an annual reduction in CO ₂ emissions equivalent to the total volume of CO ₂ emitted by the UK, France and Belgium combined. However, this important stepping stone now requires a significant expansion of production, infrastructure, and end uses.

The industry has built a solid foundation with more than 520 large-scale projects and more than 90 GW of electrolyzer production capacity announced worldwide, equating to $160 billion of direct investments. However, closer public-private collaboration is critical to ramping up investments: a four-fold increase is required by 2030 to put the world on the Net Zero trajectory. Only by distributing investments and financial support early this decade can we scale hydrogen to the level needed to meet global climate goals by 2050, while lowering costs.

The Low-Carbon and Renewable Hydrogen Policy Toolbox, released alongside the previous report, represents a first-of-its-kind comprehensive assessment of dozens of hydrogen policy measures applied across different segments of the value chain in different stages of the market. maturity. It demonstrates how a set of effective regulatory and policy measures can provide the necessary visibility to investors in the short and medium term, as well as in the long term, helping to reduce project risk, thereby lowering hydrogen costs, driving uptake and stimulating cross-border hydrogen trade. It also sheds light on the need to take into account in policy design the social values and benefits associated with the development of the hydrogen economy in order to contribute to the fulfillment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Benoît Potier, Chairman and CEO of Air Liquide and Co-Chairman of the Hydrogen Council, said: “Global warming is a key challenge of our times. Hydrogen is now widely recognized as a key element for a successful energy transition. To accelerate, governments and industry must synchronize efforts to realize their potential in order to truly meet net zero targets. The data and policy guidance released by the Hydrogen Council is critical in the context of COP26. This is a call to action for decision makers and the industry to join forces and do the planned activity, to prepare the transition for success.”

“Hydrogen can enable the profitable decarbonization of economies around the world. There is clear momentum in hydrogen investments, but a transformation of such magnitude requires an unprecedented mobilization of public and private resources through strong partnerships and political support. We look forward to working with governments on hydrogen for the benefit of our shared climate goals,” said Tom Linebarger, Cummins president and chief executive officer and co-chair of the Hydrogen Council.

Daryl Wilson, Executive Director of the Hydrogen Council added: “Simply put, there is no climate solution without hydrogen. We know from past experience with technologies such as wind and solar that early investment and policy support early in market development can reduce costs quickly, allowing for deployment at pace and scale. Our new reports not only define how hydrogen can become an economy-wide solution by 2050, but offer practical recommendations on how to get there – by increasing investments in the next decade, supported by efficient policy design.”

“The hydrogen momentum continues to accelerate: electrolysis capacity announced for 2030 has doubled this year and announced project investments have risen to $160 billion, with total investments in the ecosystem estimated at more than three times that figure,” he added. Bernd Heid, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company. “On the path to our decarbonisation commitments, the demand for clean hydrogen may grow to 75 Mt by 2030, of which two-thirds will come from new markets such as steel, industry, mobility, aviation and maritime. To meet this new demand, we will see the emergence of new energy hubs and global value chains that will enable a hydrogen market seven times its current size by mid-century.”

Source: The Energy Newspaper