Hydrogen – in its various forms – has the capacity to play a transformative but targeted role in the economy. It requires a holistic approach to ensure deployment is carried out in a manner which maximizes the potential positive impacts and minimizes the potential negative impacts on local communities, the natural environment, and the climate.
In 2021, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions for COP25 and COP26, Gonzalo Muñoz and Nigel Topping, and the global partners of the UN Marrakech Partnership, collaborated on the development of the ‘Guiding Principles for Climate-Aligned Hydrogen Deployment’ – assisting stakeholders in managing complex issues of path dependency, emissions accounting, and health and socioeconomic equity. These principles helped to streamline the emerging production and use of clean hydrogen while raising the standards of conduct by which firms, governments, and communities pursue it.
Now, Flagship Partners H2LAC, The Green Hydrogen Organisation, and The Green Hydrogen Catapult, convened by the Climate Champions Team, have developed a Joint-Agreement on the Responsible Deployment of Renewables-Based Hydrogen in order to further augment these guidelines and strengthen multilateral support across a range of non-party stakeholders. Through consultation with regional hydrogen alliances, civil society organisations, private sector corporations, members of academia and national labs, government institutions, public agencies, and environmental NGOs, 30 principles and standards were established and codified at COP28 in Expo City, Dubai. Through this process of ongoing consultation and multilateral collaboration, the agreement will look to guide the responsible deployment of renewables-based hydrogen towards an equitable, nature-positive net zero future.
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“Ultimately, renewable green hydrogen is the only scalable and sustainable way to decarbonize those sectors that can’t be directly electrified,” explains Jonas Moberg, The Green Hydrogen Organisation CEO. “As we build the renewable green hydrogen sector at pace to address the climate emergency, we need to bring society with us. The Joint-Agreement clearly sets out the principles needed to ensure the sector grows responsibly and equitably.”
These principles and standards, across six thematic areas, range from technology-readiness levels and emissions intensities to protection of the natural environment and positive impacts for local ecology and communities. Through the consideration of a broad range of themes and facets of production, application, trade, and beyond, the Joint-Agreement takes a holistic, comprehensive approach to understanding and addressing the positive and negative impacts, opportunities, and challenges of global renewables-based hydrogen deployment.
“The development of renewables-based hydrogen not only represents a key element to decarbonise those sectors that are difficult to electrify, it must also be a key driver for the development of economies specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean. This agreement presents clear standards to support the development of this industry without leaving anyone behind,” stated Bernhard Zymla, Euroclima+ (GIZ) Lead Coordinator.
“The effective and responsible deployment of renewables-based hydrogen with the necessary urgency and scale must be an ‘all hands on deck’ endeavour, encompassing industry collaboration, open and transparent government engagement and real involvement by, and benefits for, local communities,” said Alex Hewitt, CWP Global CEO and Green Hydrogen Catapult Chair. “We are proud to join our Green Hydrogen Catapult colleagues in strongly supporting this agreement, an important expression of our commitment to a real, responsible and net-zero aligned green hydrogen industry globally.
At COP28, The Flagship partners signed the Joint-Agreement – thus codifying the 30 principles and standards outlined in the document. The Flagship Partners include H2LAC, The Green Hydrogen Organisation, and The Green Hydrogen Catapult – convened by the Climate Champions Team.
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FLAGSHIP PARTNER INFORMATION
H2LAC
H2LAC is a collaborative platform whose goal is to promote the development of green hydrogen and its derivatives in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). It seeks to enhance cooperation and exchange between different parties to advance the development of green hydrogen in the region through policy dialogue, capacity building and knowledge transfer. Its implementation is supported by the Euroclima Programme, which is funded by the European Union (EU) and co-financed by Germany through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) together with the governments of France and Spain.
H2LAC is developed through the collaborative effort of Euroclima, GIZ, ECLAC and the World Bank. It was born in 2020 and officially launched in November 2021. After two years of operation, it has brought together more than 47 partners in 13 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/H2LAC
LinkedIn: https://.linkedin.com/company/h2lac-org
Website: h2lac.org
The Green Hydrogen Organisation
The Green Hydrogen Organisation (GH2) is a Swiss non-profit foundation. In addition to its office in Geneva it is present in Beijing, Buenos Aires, Chennai, London, Nairobi, Oslo, Perth, and Sydney.
The mission of the Green Hydrogen Organisation (GH2) is to dramatically accelerate the production and utilisation of green hydrogen across a range of sectors globally. It will push to rapidly decarbonize industries like steel, cement, fertilizers, shipping and aviation that have so far made limited progress reducing their emissions.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gh2org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gh2org
Website: www.gh2.org
The Green Hydrogen Catapult
The Green Hydrogen Catapult is a coalition of ambitious green hydrogen frontrunners, convened with the support of the Climate Champions Team and coordinated by RMI. The Catapult is focused on enabling GW-scale flagship projects and infrastructure development in three key sectors – green shipping; green steel and green ammonia. In addition, the coalition works to influence global policy development, mobilize new trade markets and unlock finance in emerging markets.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greenh2catapult/
Website: greenh2catapult.com
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