Hydrogen Transition Summit Highlights

Led by Nik Gowing, the Summit explored key elements for scaling hydrogen as a low-carbon energy source; policy and standards, innovation, investment, and collaboration. Throughout the day, the real need for cooperation amongst all stakeholders and attracting readily available finance with clear standard shone through as the foundations of the hydrogen ecosystem.  

Bertrand Piccard, President of the Solar Impulse Foundation, gave an uplifting opening keynote address on trailblazing innovation for sustainability, setting out a vision for the hydrogen industry,"We have to get to critical mass, we have to make the industry of hydrogen desirable like it was desirable to have a cell phone, like it was desirable to have photovoltaic.” He continued,”If we don't start now, it'll never happen. We become pioneers. It's not a question of technology...there is no limit to the technology.” 

Establishing clear standardisation in policy and regulation 

Christian Stuckmann, Vice President of Hydrogen Development at Uniper; Kristin Tilley, Ambassador for Climate Change for the Government of Australia; Leslie Labruto, Managing Director of Sustainable Finance at the Environmental Defense Fund; and Mike Train, Chief Sustainability Officer of Emerson, formed the first panel, titled The Role of the Private Sector in Supporting Informed and Ambitious Policy. 

The panellists highlighted the need for customer-focused hydrogen solutions and regulatory clarity to enable investment, community engagement and government funding to bridge production cost gaps. At present, the lack of demand and market mechanisms for hydrogen deters private investments. Compounding this, there is complexity of regulations and risks associated with hydrogen production projects. 

Development of clear policies and incentives are crucial to drive hydrogen adoption and ensure environmental integrity.  Regarding risk, Christian Stuckmann discussed the industry needs for a market maker, a state-backed entity that can enter into long-term offtake agreements to mitigate risks and stabilise market dynamics. 

Methane emissions and hydrogen leakage pose significant environmental risks, with Leslie Labruto raising the criticality of a full system level assessment, “This is an engineering problem. If regulators and governments can listen to the engineering problem and bake it into how they think about standards and frameworks, we all win because investments can flow and people can really feel good about this industry.” 

Echoing this discussion, on a later panel, Fabio Passaro, Senior Transition Policy Analyst at Climate Bonds Initiative shared, “Investors are ready, there is money available. What they need is the standardised certification to finance these hydrogen projects.”  

Innovation to deploy low-carbon hydrogen at scale 

The Summit highlighted the challenges facing hydrogen projects and the global hydrogen economy, while offering innovative solutions to overcome these barriers enabling the rapid growth of the hydrogen ecosystem.  

Innovative pathways to decarbonise hard-to-abate industries discussed the commercial viability of hydrogen and boosting hydrogen demand in heavy industry sectors through innovative technologies and vertical collaboration. 

Haimeng Zhang, Group Vice President, CSO, and Board of Director for LONGi Hydrogen Business at LONGi Green Technology Co Ltd; Fabio Passaro, Senior Transition Policy Analyst at Climate Bonds Initiative; Irina Gorbounova, Vice President M&A and Head of XCarb Innovation Fund at Arcelormittal; Markus Müller, Chief Investment Officer ESG at Deutsche Bank AG; and Thomas Koch Blank, Managing Director at RMI formed the panel moderated by Zane McDonald, Executive Director at GTI Energy. 

At a moment of huge momentum in clean hydrogen, with a tremendous mobilisation of public and private dollars towards realising the ambitions of clean hydrogen, Irina Gorbounova emphasised that, “it really requires not just technological, but business model innovation.” 

Later in the day, the Summit explored cutting-edge production methods from innovators in a session moderated by Luca Corradi, Chief Technology Officer of the Net Zero Technology Centre, Improving scalability and affordability of green hydrogen production, including speakers Alicia Eastman, APC Investors Founder & MD, InterContinental Energy Co-founder & Board Director; Dr. Gayle Schueller, SVP and Chief Sustainability Officer at 3M Company; Francois Dao; Senior Vice President, Middle East and Africa, of EDF Renewables; Kevin Lynch, CEO of Source Galileo.  

Investment 

Dr. RB Balaji, Global Co-Lead for Green Hydrogen at the International Finance Corporation; Francisco de la Flor, Director at Enagás; and Monika Beck, Member of the Management Board at the Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH formed the panel Catalysing investment in the hydrogen industry, moderated by Tom Kerr, Lead Climate Specialist at the World Bank Group. 

The discussion was opened by Tom Kerr, who brought light to the fact that more than 400 hydrogen projects have been announced in emerging markets, yet only a handful have reached final investment decisions, inviting the speakers to provide their experience on the ground and some of the barriers and solutions.  

Within this session, RB Balaji highlighted the need for global collaboration throughout each sector of the industry, “Our mandate is to focus on private sector development in emerging markets...we complement the work our sister organisation, the World Bank, does with government and the public sector.” Compared to the EU Green Deal and the US’ Inflation Reduction Act, “in emerging markets governments don’t have the capacity to offer these benefits to the industry. So we step in, we work with other multilateral development banks to see how we can bridge this gap...Developing the hydrogen industry takes so many different parts of the value chain.” 

Collaboration 

In the afternoon, the discussions focused on building the hydrogen economy together, zoning in on the potential of the hydrogen economy and cross-regional partnerships to accelerate and expand hydrogen deployment.  

The final panel Creating the optimal conditions for rapid infrastructure roll-out, moderated by Nik Gowing began with Andries Gryffroy, Member of Flemish Parliament and member of the European Committee of the Regions, sharing experience from Flanders and its advantageous Port of Antwerp. He stated, “Producing hydrogen is one thing, but transporting it efficiently is another. This involves connecting production hubs to end-users in the most cost-effective way and identifying key hotspots for connectivity. Inevitably, this leads to the classic “chicken or egg” dilemma: what comes first, the production or the infrastructure?” He then summarised, “Cross-border projects are essential. Flanders cannot act alone; we need connections with the Netherlands, Germany, and potentially other countries. Different levels of government play distinct roles. Local governments invest in the grid, regional governments provide incentives and foster innovation through collaboration with knowledge centres, and national and international frameworks set the stage for broader cooperation.” 

Following this, Khaled Nageib, CEO of Hydrogen Egypt, outlined Egypt’s hydrogen journey and its strong position for scaling exports. He built on Andries’ message, “The challenge—and opportunity—lies in bridging the gap between regions with high production potential and those with high consumption needs.”  

Malcolm Turnbull, 29th Prime Minister of Australia, President of International Hydropower Association, and Founding Chairman of the Green Hydrogen Organisation offered closing remarks, reminding the Summit that, “a just energy transition must address land and water use, community engagement, and equitable local economic development.”