Working paper – Hydrogen On The Horizon: National Hydrogen Strategies

The World Energy Council, in collaboration with EPRI and PwC, aims to provide a better understanding of hydrogen development worldwide for the energy community, building on the expertise and experience of its global network. In this context, we published a new Innovation Insights Briefing on Hydrogen in July 2021, seeking to start a multi-stakeholder, multi-level community dialogue on hydrogen’s role in energy transitions.

This Working Paper on hydrogen is part of a series of publications by the World Energy Council focused on Innovation. It was developed in collaboration with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and PwC.

In a fast-paced era of disruptive changes, this briefing aims at facilitating strategic sharing of knowledge between the Council’s members and the other energy stakeholders and policy shapers and contribute to a global dialogue on hydrogen’s role in energy transitions.

This working paper builds upon earlier work by the Council and involved extensive research on national strategy developments and interviews with 38 experts from 23 countries, reflecting 61 % of the global Total Primary Energy Supply – TPES (2018 data, OECD) and 70% of global GDP (2019 data, WB).

The development of a “hydrogen economy” is still at its early stages with few countries having published strategies, though there is broadening global interest and support. To date,1 12 countries and the European Union (EU) have published their national hydrogen strategies, with 9 published within the last year alone. A further 19 countries are currently drafting their strategies with many aiming to publish in 2021, demonstrating a clear acceleration of government interest backed by, potentially, COP26 acting as a catalyst.