Michael Liebreich at the FT Hydrogen Summit 2025 (FT Hydrogen Summit)
Letter from London: Hydrogen’s souffle moment
One of the sector’s harshest critics calls for a change of course, but the industry insists it is on an upward trajectory
Renowned clean hydrogen sceptic Michael Liebreich stunned an industry conference in London in late June with perhaps his most damning assessment of the sector’s prospects. He told a room full of project developers that they have failed to do the basic arithmetic when drawing up their business plans and called some of the planned new applications for hydrogen “insanely stupid”. Liebreich, chairman of advisory firm Liebreich Associates, said he struggled to see viable use cases for green hydrogen. Hydrogen is not a good fuel; it is not good for heating and will not work for transport applications, he told the FT Hydrogen Summit 2025. “I have never seen an industry where the divide betwe
Also in this section
9 March 2026
Hydrogen has not stalled in the UK because the technology does not work. The problem is that the system around it does not yet move at the speed required
4 March 2026
Turmoil in Middle East reminds nascent clean hydrogen sector that its future prospects are dependent on global energy markets and geopolitics
25 February 2026
Low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia development is advancing much more slowly and unevenly than once expected, with high costs and policy uncertainty thinning investment. Meanwhile, surging energy demand is reinforcing the role of natural gas and LNG as the backbone of the global energy system, panellists at LNG2026 said
18 February 2026
Norwegian energy company has dropped a major hydrogen project and paused its CCS expansion plans as demand fails to materialise
