Environment and Natural Resources Program Reports
October 2021
Abstract
To accelerate the global transition to a low-carbon economy, all
energy systems must be actively decarbonized. While hydrogen has
been a staple in the energy and chemical industries for decades, clean
hydrogen – defined as hydrogen produced from water electrolysis
with zero-carbon electricity – has captured increasing political and
business momentum as a versatile and sustainable energy carrier in
the future carbon-free energy puzzle. But taking full advantage of
this potential will require a coordinated effort between the public
and private sectors focused on scaling technologies, reducing costs,
deploying enabling infrastructure, and defining appropriate policies
and market structures. Only in this way can we avoid replicating the
system-wide inefficiencies of the past that have characterized regional
approaches to deploying new energy infrastructure.
Citation
De Blasio, Nicola, Fridolin Pflugmann, Henry Lee, Charles Hua, Alejandro Nunez-Jimenez, and Phoebe Fallon. "Mission Hydrogen: Accelerating the Transition to a Low Carbon Economy." Environment and Natural Resources Program Reports, October 2021.