Across the globe, 15 countries have already announced their official national hydrogen strategies, while several others have announced roadmaps and official statements to establish their domestic hydrogen ecosystem. Although in the past there was significant interest in developing a hydrogen economy, absence of affordable renewable energy (RE) and urgency to decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors were hindering the case for green hydrogen’s deployment. Decreasing costs due to advancements in RE and electrolyzer technologies, and the impetus to decarbonize economies can now enable a cost efficient and feasible transition to low carbon hydrogen. Capability to produce hydrogen is seen as a strong element of energy security, and thus countries are aiming to establish themselves as pioneers across the hydrogen value chain. Countries are adopting an array of policy, regulatory, and financial mechanisms to enable supply-demand frameworks for establishing their hydrogen ecosystems.

In our previous webinar (Watch the recording here) our discussion aimed to answer some of the following questions:

• What are some of the policies and regulatory mechanisms commonly utilized across countries while framing their hydrogen strategies?
• What factors are driving the hydrogen colour conundrum and how could a colour-bias risk premature exclusion of certain hydrogen production technologies?
• Understanding the importance of demand-pull mechanisms and policy perspectives?
• What could be some of the learnings from the renewables and battery manufacturing sectors to avoid ‘green colonialism’ across the manufacturing sector and support the development of hydrogen value chain?
• How can countries leverage their existing and future bilateral partnerships to accelerate hydrogen deployment across continents at cost-competitive levels? How could legislative commitments solidify strategy adoption and implementation?
• What could be some of the specific fiscal measures and interventions countries could adopt to accelerate execution of hydrogen project pipeline globally?

The Global Hydrogen Strategies Webinar II of our series will aim to further discuss these aspects with regional stakeholders that were unable to participate in our first webinar.

• Dr. Nicholas Musyoka, Research Group Leader, CSIR-Hydrogen South Africa and Carbon Capture and Utilisation, South Africa
• Maria Jose Gonzalez, Technical Advisor and Co-ordinator, Hydrogen Program, Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining, Uruguay
• Sara Shahmohammadi, Founder International Green Hydrogen Alliance (CRENHA/IGH2A), Canada
• Anurag Mishra, Sr. Clean Energy Specialist and Energy Team Leader, Clean Energy and Environment Office (CLEEO), USAID, USA
• Dr. Perminder Jit Kaur, Senior Policy Fellow at Centre for Policy Research, Department of Science and Technology, IISc, Bangalore
• Lara Hirschhausen, Head of International Hydrogen Strategy and Engagement, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
• Pawan Mulukutla, Director, Integrated Transport, Electric Mobility and Hydrogen, WRI India, India (Moderator)