Written evidence submitted by Hydrogen Strategy Now (PEG0062)
The cross-industry Hydrogen Strategy Now campaign is delighted to submit evidence to this inquiry.
Our key message to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee is that:
● Unlocking the UK’s hydrogen economy can play a key role in our economic recovery from the COVID crisis.
● This requires the government to initiate a UK-wide hydrogen strategy.
We have set out some initial principles for how we believe the Government should approach its development of a UK hydrogen strategy, and these are set out below in the letter we sent to the Prime Minister on 6 July.
The Hydrogen Strategy Now campaign was launched on Tuesday 16 June and is made up of forty-six major businesses and trade bodies. A full list of campaign partners is set out at the end of this submission.
Collectively, Hydrogen Strategy Now campaign partners:
● Employ around 100,000 people and have a value of £100bn in the UK.
● Stand ready to invest up to £1.5bn in hydrogen projects and create thousands of jobs across the country.
Due to the nature of our campaign, our evidence is focused on highlighting the opportunities that exist for the UK to become a leader in the world’s hydrogen economy, which is estimated to be worth $2.5 trillion by 2050. This will:
● Create and sustain hundreds of thousands of high-skilled, green jobs, in all parts of the country.
● Drive progress to Net Zero and improve air quality in towns and cities.
● Secure private investment into the UK, and unlock export opportunities for our products and skills.
● Increase our energy security by making fuller use of the UK’s natural resources.
Parliamentary support
Since its launch, the Hydrogen Strategy Now campaign has:
● Secured the backing of over fifty-five parliamentarians from both Houses and from all parties.
● Been referenced multiple times in the House of Commons and House of Lords.
● Prompted a high volume of written parliamentary questions.
The campaign has also received the following statements of support:
Baroness Brown, vice-chair of the influential Committee on Climate Change:
"The UK missed the boat on wind technology and missed the boat on batteries. We can't afford to miss the boat on hydrogen.
"I strongly agree that the UK urgently needs a hydrogen strategy, as there are too many small, piecemeal funds and projects. We need some serious private and public funding, and a coordinated effort between government and industry, to kickstart and grow a green-job-creating hydrogen economy across the country".
George Freeman, Conservative MP for Mid Norfolk and former UK Minister of State for Future of Transport:
“The UK has a chance to lead the world in Hydrogen Fuel. Let’s not squander it.
“Hydrogen must play a key role in the Government's Transport Decarbonisation plan. Electric battery engines great for cars but hydrogen will be essential for HGVs, buses, tractors, trains and ships.
“Great to see these businesses and trade groups working together to highlight the potential we have in the UK to lead the world in hydrogen technology. Let's do this”.
Alexander Stafford, Conservative MP for Rother Valley and a member of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee:
"It is abundantly clear that the Government must support a truly sustainable green recovery. These brilliant businesses are critical to achieving that future green energy mix, and they will achieve that through their hydrogen operations.
“We want to see emissions reduced, we want investment and we want green jobs. If we don’t want the UK to be left behind, we need to act now, supporting hydrogen to the benefit of us all."
Alex Sobel, Labour MP for Leeds North West, Chair of the Net Zero APPG and member of the Environmental Audit Committee:
"The businesses that are signed up to the UK Hydrogen Strategy Now campaign are ready to invest, create jobs, and lead the way on hydrogen. Their voice is powerful and their arguments compelling - now is the time to seize the initiative”.
Hydrogen Strategy Now open letter to the Chancellor
On Tuesday 16 June, the Hydrogen Strategy Now campaign published an open letter to the Chancellor, which is copied in full below:
Dear Chancellor of the Exchequer,
As a group of leading businesses that operate in the UK, we are united in our belief that the Government must establish a UK-wide hydrogen strategy. Developing a clear, strategic plan such as this will unlock significant private investment in hydrogen technologies and manufacturing across the country, driving growth and creating green jobs.
The UK has the potential to become a global leader in renewable and low-carbon hydrogen technology, but we must move fast to realise this opportunity and achieve the maximum economic benefit.
A UK-wide hydrogen economy will:
● Create and sustain hundreds of thousands of high-skilled, green jobs, in all parts of the country
● Drive progress to Net Zero and improve air quality in towns and cities
● Secure private investment into the UK, and unlock export opportunities for our products and skills
● Increase our energy security by making fuller use of the UK’s natural resources
As you look to design a post-COVID recovery, we encourage you to focus on creating high-skilled, green jobs, in sectors that will be critical to the future economy, such as low-carbon energy, transport and heavy industry.
These measures would be wholly complementary to the Government’s levelling-up agenda and long-term decarbonisation goals. For example, the Committee for Climate Change has made it clear that the UK will not meet its Net Zero targets without significant investment in the hydrogen economy.
The global hydrogen economy is estimated to be worth $2.5 trillion by 2050, supporting 30 million jobs. Other nations, such as Australia, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and China have already set ambitious strategies for growing their hydrogen economies. Just last week, Germany joined this list with their own €9 billion hydrogen strategy. The European Commission is also creating an EU hydrogen strategy, which includes plans for multi-billion euro investment in hydrogen projects, and schemes to boost sales of hydrogen electric vehicles.
It is now clear that hydrogen is going to play an essential role in the world’s future, low-carbon economy. The increasingly bold steps being taken by other nations underlines the need for the UK to bring forward urgent measures to establish a hydrogen strategy and unlock investment and innovation. We should not risk falling behind other nations in developing our hydrogen industry.
As a collective, which combined employ around 100,000 people and has a value of £100bn in the UK, we stand ready to invest up to £1.5bn in hydrogen projects and create thousands of jobs across the country. This is why we have joined together for the Hydrogen Strategy Now campaign.
Support from Trade Unions
On Wednesday 24 June, the Hydrogen Strategy Now campaign secured the support for four of the UK’s largest trade unions – Unison, GMB, Prospect, and Unite. The General Secretaries of all four of these trade unions signed an open letter to the Chancellor, which is copied in full below:
Dear Chancellor of the Exchequer,
As the UK's biggest energy unions, we have joined together to encourage you to take positive and bold steps in enabling the UK to set an ambitious strategy for hydrogen across the country.
We represent some 200,000 workers in the energy sector and we fully support the need to become decarbonised in a manner that takes significant steps towards our Net Zero targets, whilst at the same time sustaining and creating high quality jobs, and supporting economic growth in all parts of the country.
We believe hydrogen is key to meeting these objectives. It will support the decarbonisation of heat and the generation of clean power. It is also critical not only because it will enable energy to decarbonise, but also because it will enable transport and heavy industry to do so too, with the multiple benefits this will bring.
We note that a cross-industry campaign has been established by a group of businesses and trade bodies urging you to announce at next month's fiscal event a commitment to establishing a UK-wide hydrogen strategy. We agree with this recommendation, and urge the Government to move fast on developing a UK-wide hydrogen strategy.
We can look across the world and see other nations bringing forward multi-billion pound, job-creating hydrogen strategies. The UK cannot afford to risk being left behind and failure would result in the UK not meeting its Net Zero obligation and a loss of high skilled and quality jobs.
We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss how the UK's hydrogen industry can create and sustain jobs among the sectors we represent.
Yours
Dave Prentis
General Secretary of UNISON
John Phillips
Acting General Secretary of GMB
Mike Clancy
General Secretary of Prospect
Len McCluskey
General Secretary of Unite
Support from academics
On Thursday 2 July, the Hydrogen Strategy Now campaign published a letter to the Chancellor signed by forty world-leading academics supporting a UK-wide hydrogen strategy. The letter is copied in full below:
Dear Chancellor of the Exchequer,
We are writing as world-leading academics in the fields of low-carbon energy, renewables, the environment, transport, and climate change, to express our support for a UK-wide hydrogen strategy. Such a strategy could further reinforce the UK’s standing, reputation and the export potential of our knowledge in this field.
The economic recovery from the Covid crisis must be green, clean, and create jobs. Hydrogen can play a key role in this recovery. In the longer term, if the government is going to achieve its legally required target of reaching Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050, hydrogen will be needed to get there.
The UK has a huge number of natural advantages when it comes to hydrogen energy – we have a surplus supply of renewable wind energy, we have a robust energy infrastructure, and we have a highly-skilled manufacturing base well-suited to a cutting-edge new technology like hydrogen.
The benefits of having a strong hydrogen economy are clear – it will drastically reduce carbon emissions, improve air quality, and create new, green jobs across the country. It can help usher in a new era of zero-carbon transport, through hydrogen buses, trains, lorries and even ships and aeroplanes, as well as zero-carbon heating. It will also provide a huge boost to manufacturing in this country and give the UK the opportunity to lead the world in an exciting renewable and low-carbon technology.
Of course, the Net Zero target cannot be met through hydrogen alone. It will need a complementary approach across all forms of renewable energy and zero-carbon areas. But introducing a UK-wide hydrogen strategy would be a good place to start.
Many other countries have already begun this work. Germany, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Canada, and China have all introduced their own hydrogen strategies. The European Commission is also creating an EU hydrogen strategy, including plans for multi-billion-euro investment in hydrogen projects. Unless the government acts now, the UK risks being left behind.
We fully support the objectives of the Hydrogen Strategy Now campaign, which has brought together leading organisations to jointly call for the introduction of a UK-wide hydrogen strategy. We hope the government takes note, and acts now, before it is too late.
Letter to the Prime Minister
On Monday July 6, the Hydrogen Strategy Now campaign wrote to the Prime Minister after he stated in the House of Commons that his government intends to “invest massively in hydrogen”. The full text of the letter is copied below:
Dear Prime Minister
Delivering your vision to “invest massively in hydrogen”
We were greatly encouraged by your statement in the House of Commons on 1 July that the UK Government will “invest massively in hydrogen”, as well as your mention of hydrogen technology during your Economy Speech in Dudley.
As a group of leading businesses and trade bodies, we are writing to recommit our £1.5bn ambitions to invest in hydrogen projects and create thousands of jobs across the country.
You are right that “this is the moment to be ambitious”. The opportunity for the UK to lead the world in renewable and low-carbon hydrogen technology is now. Last month we wrote to the Chancellor to encourage him to announce in his summer statement a commitment that the UK would produce a hydrogen strategy. Since then, our campaign has been supported over forty parliamentarians from both Houses and all parties, as well as local authority leaders, leading academics and the General Secretaries of four of the countries biggest trade unions.
We believe the case for a UK-wide hydrogen strategy is clear, and we would like to share with you three fundamental aspects that this must include to enable our hydrogen economy to “bounce forward” as quickly as possible:
● Ambition: Other nations, such as Germany, Portugal, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Canada, China and the EU have already set ambitious, multi-billion pound strategies for growing their hydrogen economies. Your commitment to “invest massively in hydrogen” is essential now if the UK is to succeed in a global hydrogen economy that is estimated to be worth $2.5 trillion by 2050, supporting 30 million jobs. We urge the UK government to exceed investment commitments made by any other country to date, and we already have £1.5bn of private investment ready to go.
● Collaboration: The UK’s hydrogen strategy must ensure close collaboration between the Government and industry. Hydrogen policy spans many different Government departments, so we encourage you to establish a cross-government working group, led by a cabinet minister, that involves representatives from business, trade bodies, environmental groups, local government and the unions. This formal group can focus on stimulating further private investment, job creation, export opportunities and designing future, large scale projects.
● Speed: As you said in Dudley, “we must work fast”. We will work with the Government to ensure the UK is clear world-leader in hydrogen by the time of COP26, so that we can inspire the world to follow in our footsteps and buy our skills and technology to do so. UK designed and produced hydrogen technology exists and is ready to be scaled up today (covering transport, production, power and heat), so we urge you and the Chancellor to, in your words “take the zap and élan of the armed services who helped to build the Nightingales” and apply this to growing our hydrogen economy between now and November 2021.
Collectively we have several positive, practical and specific policy proposals which, combined, will provide the essential tools to grow a world-beating hydrogen economy. These measures will:
● Unlock investment in ‘shovel-ready’ hydrogen projects
● Create and sustain hundreds of thousands of high-skilled green jobs, in all parts of the country as part of your levelling up agenda
● Drive progress to Net Zero, improve air quality in towns and cities and power our Green Recovery
● Generate new export opportunities for our products and skills
● Increase our energy security by making fuller use of the UK’s natural resources
We appreciate the many pressing demands on your time, but we cannot risk falling behind other nations in developing our hydrogen industry and missing the opportunity to create high-quality jobs across the UK. We want to work side-by-side with the Government to “invest massively in hydrogen”, and we would be delighted to discuss how this can be achieved, starting today, with you and your officials are the earliest opportunity.
Hydrogen Strategy Now campaign partners
The Hydrogen Strategy Now campaign is made up of over forty major businesses and trade bodies:
July 2020