How China's thriving green hydrogen industry can underpin a global net-zero future

As global climate governance ushers in the ‘implementation’ stage of efforts to reach net zero, green hydrogen is widely regarded as one of the important pathways towards achieving carbon neutrality.

Developing the renewable hydrogen industry has become a crucial factor in driving the transformation of carbon-intensive industries and heavy-duty transportation, as well as establishing a new trading system for green energy.

With continuous advancement in large-scale hydrogen development, industrial innovation and cooperation on standards, China’s hydrogen industry is working to provide a ‘China solution’ for the development of the sector.

To support this effort, the World Economic Forum, in partnership with two leading organizations, has published a new report titled Green Hydrogen in China: A Roadmap for Progress at the 14^th Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin.

The white paper outlines a blueprint to help China deliver its green hydrogen vision. It identifies six key barriers and goals related to cost, infrastructure, market demand, industry standards and certification, technology, evolution, and cooperation. It also offers 35 enabling measures to be executed in three phases by 2030 to achieve this aim.

The key benefit of green hydrogen is that it is obtained via electrolysis using renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, which has obvious advantages in carbon emissions reductions compared to hydrogen produced from fossil fuels.

Renewable hydrogen is, therefore, an important solution to promote decarbonization, especially in the hard-to-abate emissions industries such as transportation, chemicals, or steel production, and countries worldwide have started accelerating the deployment of large-scale green hydrogen demonstration projects.

In China, green hydrogen is seen as an essential factor in helping the country achieve its Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality goal.

As the world's largest hydrogen producer and consumer, China had already built and operated 36 renewable hydrogen projects by 2022, with a combined production capacity of about 37,000 tons per year. In addition, more than 300 projects are in the pipeline across the country, with an estimated annual renewable hydrogen capacity of 3.5 million tonnes (Mt).

For example, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games witnessed the large-scale deployment of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles, while several 10,000-ton-level green hydrogen demonstration projects for chemical decarbonization have been deployed.

Such large-scale green hydrogen bases will promote innovation of the key technologies required and create a broader hydrogen industrial ecosystem. Despite the growing attention on green hydrogen recently, concerns and challenges around cost, demand, and infrastructure have prevented it from significantly contributing to China’s green energy transition.

Innovation in core technology and equipment throughout the industrial chain, such as electrolyzers and fuel cells, is vital for the accelerated development and scaling of the industrial processes required for green hydrogen industry production.

At the same time, the successful adoption of these technologies within the renewable hydrogen industry will also further spur action towards a net zero transformation. It is also necessary to give full play to the government’s guiding role and enterprises’ supporting role to develop the sector through industrial regional and global collaboration.

To promote further innovation and development within China’s hydrogen energy industry, the China Hydrogen Alliance in 2021 launched the Renewable Hydrogen 100 Action Initiative, which strives to achieve the goal of 100 GW installation of electrolyzers by 2030.

As one of the founding members of China Hydrogen Alliance, China Energy took lead in building the country’s first testing and demonstration base for key green hydrogen equipment. This will support the deployment of large-scale green hydrogen projects, while also enhancing the innovation capability and efficiency for standardization of the hydrogen industry.

Green hydrogen standards are key to the coordinated development of the sector as it seeks to meet ever-evolving production requirements. Setting standards will also help realize the exchange between China and its global partners, which will further reduce barriers to green trade and provide vital support to help the country scale up the advantages of its own industrial processes to the international market.

In 2020, China unveiled the Standard and Evaluation of Low-carbon Hydrogen, Clean Hydrogen and Renewable Hydrogen and developed a decarbonization methodology for renewable hydrogen production and fuel cell vehicles based on the clean development mechanism of the United Nations.

In addition, efforts are being made to build a digital platform for green hydrogen life cycle tracing and evaluation, as well as a trading platform.

China also contributes to the high-quality development of the global green hydrogen industry through networks and mechanisms such as the China-Europe Hydrogen Technology Innovation and Cooperation Project, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation initiative and the World Economic Forum.

With continuous efforts to promote large-scale, diversified and commercialized application of green hydrogen, China stands ready to team up with global partners to step up technical, standards and project cooperation in a bid to establish a high-quality ecosystem for the sector’s development.