Covid-19 fiscal crunch could slow growth of green H2

Important parts of the renewable hydrogen economy will not reach competitive scale if governments pull back from providing promised support

The pandemic’s impact on government budgets, and therefore on green energy subsidies, may endanger the emergence of green hydrogen at commercial scale, analysts have warned. Green hydrogen is widely expected to be called upon to decarbonise the final 20pc of global energy consumption, especially for hard-to-abate sectors. But its ability to fulfil this role depends on production becoming cost-competitive with more conventional fuels. The cost of green hydrogen is falling and is expected to continue to do so, but production will not reach self-sufficiency unless governments first support adoption through investments and policies. “A government that wants to ‘go for green’ might decide t