The small mountain resort of Karuizawa in Japan’s Nagano prefecture, hosting G20 Energy Ministers from June 12-14, 2019 will be a bit puzzled by the main recommendations of the long awaited IEA Hydrogen  study that came out on June 14, 2019:

1. Making industrial ports the nerve centres for scaling up the use of clean hydrogen;
2. Building on existing infrastructure, such as natural gas pipelines;
3. Expanding the use of hydrogen in transport by using it to power cars, trucks and buses that run on key routes;
4. Launching the hydrogen trade’s first international shipping routes.

“The world has an important opportunity to tap into hydrogen’s vast potential to become a critical part of a more sustainable and secure energy future”, the International Energy Agency said in a major new report today. The study, which analyses hydrogen’s current state of play and offers guidance on its future development, was launched by Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director, alongside Mr Hiroshige Seko, Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, on the occasion of the meeting of G20 energy and environment ministers in Karuizawa, Japan. The report – The Future of Hydrogen: Seizing Today’s Opportunities – finds that clean hydrogen is currently receiving strong support from governments and businesses around the world, with the number of policies and projects expanding rapidly.

The report confirms EHA’s focus on corridor development,  linking hubs with favorable local conditions for hydrogen production and ususage, like the port of Rotterdam, Duisburg, Cologne and Strasbourg to Basel . As the first EU Synergy proposal TSO2020 is finalizing its market outlook for connecting renewable grids via gas grids to transport networks by the end of this year, the EHA is looking forward to continue its support to develop sustainable links between “hydrogen ports” along the EU’s main transport routes.

On another note Transport and Environment published their climate ranking  of best in class in transport emissions reduction in the EU. Only the top 3, the Netherlands, the UK and Spain, scored above 50% in the ranking of draft national energy and climate plans. . Germany, is 15th, setting itself up to pay billions of euro to other countries for missing the EU’s 2030 emissions goals. All countries will need to implement far more effective policies to reduce transport emissions than have been proposed to date.