Businesses call on Chancellor to commit to UK hydrogen strategy

A group of businesses have vowed to invest £1.5bn in hydrogen technologies and are calling on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to lay the foundations for a UK-wide hydrogen strategy.

The campaign group, Hydrogen Strategy Now, wrote a letter to the Chancellor arguing that developing a clear, strategic plan will unlock significant private funding in hydrogen technologies and manufacturing across the country, driving growth and generating jobs.
 
The cross-industry group, which combined employs around 100,000 people and has a value of £100bn in the UK, stands ready to invest up to £1.5bn in hydrogen projects and create thousands of jobs across the country.
 
The collective believes the UK has the potential to become a global leader in low-carbon hydrogen technology, but it must move fast to realise this opportunity and achieve the maximum economic benefit.
 
The letter to the Chancellor states: “As you look to design a post-COVID recovery, we encourage you to focus on creating high-skilled, green jobs, in sectors that will be critical to the future economy, such as low-carbon energy, transport and heavy industry.
 
“These measures would be wholly complementary to the Government’s levelling-up agenda and long-term decarbonisation goals. For example, the Committee for Climate Change has made it clear that the UK will not meet its Net Zero targets without significant investment in the hydrogen economy.
 
"The global hydrogen economy is estimated to be worth $2.5 trillion by 2050, supporting 30 million jobs. Other nations, such as Australia, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and China have already set ambitious strategies for growing their hydrogen economies. Just last week, Germany joined this list with their own €9 billion hydrogen strategy. The European Commission is also creating an EU hydrogen strategy, which includes plans for multi-billion euro investment in hydrogen projects, and schemes to boost sales of hydrogen electric vehicles.
 
"It is now clear that hydrogen is going to play an essential role in the world’s future, low-carbon economy. The increasingly bold steps being taken by other nations underlines the need for the UK to bring forward urgent measures to establish a hydrogen strategy and unlock investment and innovation. We should not risk falling behind other nations in developing our hydrogen industry”.