Global governments signed a raft of hydrogen agreements at the United Nations’ 28th COP28 summit this week.
At a high-level roundtable on hydrogen, global leaders agreed to an intergovernmental declaration of intent to produce a unified standard for certifying hydrogen.
Linde plc's chief executive Sanjiv Lamba, who is a co-chair of the Hydrogen Council, said: “Through collaborating across borders, and between public and private sector organizations, we help create the right framework for a global hydrogen economy.
“It will be the foundation for scaling up the clean hydrogen value chain and creating opportunities to accelerate decarbonization and the energy transition.”
A series of other initiatives were launched to accelerate the commercialisation of hydrogen and its derivatives at the convention on climate change, the Hydrogen Council said in a statement.
These include an ISO methodology, a way to quantitively measure economic benefits, that leaders agreed to develop to provide a global benchmark for greenhouse gas emissions assessment of hydrogen pathways.
Governments also signed a Public-Private Action Statement on cross-border trade corridors in hydrogen and derivatives.
These initiatives aim to help keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius target within reach and unlock the socio-economic benefits of cross-border value chains for hydrogen and its derivatives.
Ahmed Al-Jaber, the head of state oil company the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) who is presiding over this year’s 28th Conference of the Parties (COP 28), has called for heavy-emitting sectors to adopt low-carbon hydrogen.
Masdar, an Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy developer where Al-Jaber is a chair, recently announced plans to grow its green hydrogen capacity to 1 million tonnes as part of a €15 billion joint investment programme with Spanish utility Iberdrola.
The agreements were signed as one UK developer called for the country to expand its hydrogen standard to incorporate hydrogen made from waste sources such as non-recyclable plastics.