Thursday 9th December 2021
LONDON/BRUSSELS – An expert group of scientists, academics and engineers today launched the world’s first independent coalition on hydrogen’s role in the energy transition.
Members of the coalition will volunteer their expertise to the media and policy-makers to bring concrete evidence back into the hydrogen debate, free from industry bias. This will primarily be through briefings, access to data and media events.
“Policy-makers in the UK and EU are placing big bets on hydrogen’s role in the energy transition. While hydrogen has an important part to play, we’re concerned that an over-reliance on hydrogen will delay existing, cheaper and scalable solutions like electrification” said David Cebon, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Cambridge, England.
The five founding members bring a diverse portfolio of hydrogen expertise, ranging from chemical engineering, energy processing, decarbonising heavy duty road transport, aviation and domestic heating. Based in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands the group plans to focus on UK and EU hydrogen policy.
“Any decisions to invest public money in hydrogen need to be backed up with facts. Relying only on vested interests to guide the development of a hydrogen sector risks undermining where the evidence tells us hydrogen should play a role” said Tom Baxter, Visiting Professor University of Strathclyde and an ex-BP engineer.
Alongside the launch of their website, the group have published a joint manifesto with four recommendations for policy-makers. Central to this is which sectors hydrogen needs to be prioritised for.
“Hydrogen itself is a decarbonisation problem, and yet we depend on hydrogen as an important chemical for making things such as nitrogen fertilizers. The fossil-based hydrogen used today produces roughly the same greenhouse gas emissions as the global aviation industry. Policy makers need to prioritise the greening of hydrogen first before we start looking where else to use it” said Paul Martin, Toronto-based Chemical Engineer and Process Development Expert.
The coalition will formally launch their manifesto at a media briefing on Thursday 9th December. To sign up to join the briefing, please email [email protected].
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Notes to editors:
The Hydrogen Science Coalition is a voluntary coalition of experts, and receives no funding from governments or businesses in order to maintain neutrality.
The Coalition’s central recommendations for governments are:
- The only zero emissions hydrogen is green hydrogen
- We need to decarbonise grey hydrogen first
- Hydrogen shouldn’t delay existing electrification solutions
- Blending hydrogen into the gas grid is a waste
For further information, follow the group on Twitter and LinkedIn.
You can download a PDF of this press release here.
