In December 2020, the UK PM set out an ambitious 10 Point Plan for a green industrial revolution, one of the key points of which was the production of 5 GW of low carbon hydrogen in the UK by 2030.  The Plan envisaged hydrogen playing a key role in decarbonising energy-intensive industries and heavy transport and replacing natural gas in domestic heating.

On 17 August the UK Government published its Hydrogen Strategy (together with a number of associated Consultations), which lays the foundations for the UK’s future hydrogen economy and sets out how the UK Government will support innovation and stimulate investment in low carbon hydrogen to meet its 5GW target.

The Hydrogen Strategy is one of a series of strategies the UK government is publishing ahead of the COP26. The UK government has already published its Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, Transport Decarbonisation Strategy and North Sea Transition Deal and plans to publish its Heat and Buildings and Net Zero Strategies, as well as Number 10’s overarching Net Zero Strategy later this year.

The Hydrogen Strategy

The Strategy is honest about the scale of the challenge and acknowledges that producing 5 GW of hydrogen by 2030 will require rapid and significant scale-up in domestic low carbon hydrogen production. The Strategy also notes the urgent need for a public awareness campaign to overcome consumer concerns about safety.

The Strategy is divided into five main parts:

• The case for low carbon hydrogen: how it is produced and used; its potential role in meeting net zero; and opportunities for UK firms.
• A whole-systems approach to the UK hydrogen economy: the roadmap to 2030; the actions needed to develop each element of the hydrogen value chain to reach the 2030 target, Carbon Budget Six and net zero; the market and regulatory frameworks the UK will need to develop a hydrogen market by 2030.
• The economic opportunities: how the UK will use hydrogen to create jobs in sustainable supply chains; improve research and innovation to accelerate cost reduction and technology deployment; and maximise future hydrogen export opportunities.
• International collaboration with other countries to support the global transition to net zero.
• Monitoring and evaluation: how the UK will monitor its progress to ensure it meets the objectives set out in the first two chapters.

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