Highlights
- In light of the UK government's announcement to push out net zero 2030 targets, organisers and energy companies attending World Hydrogen Week call for urgent action in clean hydrogen investment
- Only 9% of green hydrogen projects are under construction or have reached final investment decision stage
- Leading global financiers to speak at World Hydrogen Week
With the shock announcement from the UK government to water down its net zero commitments, World Hydrogen Leaders - organisers of the largest hydrogen networking event, World Hydrogen Week - are urging greater and swifter investment to drive adoption of clean hydrogen. World Hydrogen Week will take place in the hydrogen hub of Rotterdam, 9th - 13th October, 2023.
Despite all the attributes of clean or "green" hydrogen, the delivery of a new hydrogen economy is at risk from multiple financial hurdles, including lack of capital flowing in at the scale needed, inflationary pressures, as well as resourcing, supply chain and infrastructure issues. Clean energy leaders from across the globe will be discussing these challenges head-on during World Hydrogen Week, as well as focusing on government slowness and indecision around implementing policy and subsidies. Both speakers and attendees have already expressed heightened interest in sessions addressing policy in the wake of last week's announcement from the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, that 2030 climate targets will be extended to 2035 and beyond.
"Business hates inconsistency and risk, and with around 75 per cent of energy transition investment likely to come from the private sector, the recent U-turn from the government will undoubtedly cause uncertainty around the UK's real level of commitment to emissions reduction", said Nadim Chaudhry, Chief Executive Officer, World Hydrogen Leaders. "Abrupt changes in environmental policy at a time when around only 9% of new green hydrogen projects are under construction or have reached the final investment decision stage, may well add further delay onto what is already a challenging investment market".
Some 1,000 new projects globally have been announced to date, requiring a total investment of $320 billion, however, would-be developers have only committed $29 billion to date.
"Investors require a degree of certainty, more financial support and scale, which can be done through effective policies at various levels" said Devina Parasurama, Director of Infrastructure Investments at Igneo Infrastructure Partners. "At the national level, strategies with timelines and targets are the first step to creating a stable planning horizon and certainty for stakeholders".
Among the many prominent finance and policy speakers attending World Hydrogen Week include:
Thomas Fureder, Managing Director, Barclays Investment Bank; Lisa McDermott, Executive Director, Project Finance, ABN AMRO Bank; Dominika Ermitsch, Director Valuation, Modelling & Economics, EY; Benedict Libanda, Chief Executive Officer, Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia, and Anja Benz Senior Regulatory Advisor P2X, Orsted.
The 5-day event is one of the largest and most influential in the industry and will host over 3,000 attendees from 800 organisations, representing 50 countries. Comprising 4 major events including the highly popular World Hydrogen Congress, World Hydrogen Intelligence Day and the Global Hydrogen Projects Summit, the programme has now been extended to include a world-first event: "World Hydrogen Derivatives". The inaugural derivative-focused programme is the only event across the industry to address the role hydrogen can play as an energy carrier, as a direct fuel for mobility applications, as well as providing clean supply chains for the fertiliser and chemical sectors.
About World Hydrogen Week
Leading the change to clean and sustainable energy - World Hydrogen Week has been born out of the industry's desire to unite WHL events, training courses, intelligence and members into a week-long spectacle of global hydrogen events and networking functions to drive forward the transition to clean energy.
Join the largest global community of hydrogen professionals to hone skills, learn, debate and network with industry leaders driving the commercial deployment of hydrogen projects forward to reduce our reliance on carbon and to build a sustainable and reliable future clean energy system.
