Seminar: Enabling a Sustainable Hydrogen Market Ramp-Up
Date: 24th March 2025 (full day)
Venue: Palais de Nations (UN), 8-14 Avenue de la Paix Geneva, Switzerland (Room H-307-1)
Collaboration: RIFS, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Florence School of Regulation, UNECE
About the Event
The success of an international hydrogen market hinges not only on investments in hydrogen supply and demand, but also on the development of the needed infrastructure to transport and store hydrogen. Moreover, to build the credentials of hydrogen as an energy carrier of the future, it will be crucial to build an institutional infrastructure to increase the sustainability of hydrogen investments. This means not only ensuring desired greenhouse gas savings but also addressing broader social and environmental concerns.
The Research Institute for Sustainability at GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences organized an In-Person Seminar, in collaboration with the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, the Florence School of Regulation, and the UN Economic Commission for Europe. The event took place as a side event of the UNECE Resource Management held the full week of March in Geneva Switzerland.
This workshop addressed these two dimensions of an international hydrogen market ramp-up in two parts:
Part 1 provided an overview of the state-of-play in hydrogen transport and storage infrastructure. Based on inputs from leading experts, the workshop engaged participants in a discussion of key challenges and open questions on hydrogen infrastructure development.
Part 2 fostered an exchange on progress in establishing the sustainability credentials of hydrogen, including its carbon footprint and broader social and environmental issues. A number of expert inputs provided a review of current requirements, as demanded by regulations in major offtake markets, certification schemes and the rules applied by investors and financial institutions. This was followed by an open dialogue on the key challenges and the way forward in accelerating the hydrogen market ramp-up while ensuring sustainability in the sector.
Please find the detailed programme here.
Slides
Dr Katja Yafimava, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, “The EU hydrogen and decarbonised gas package: shaping H2 infrastructure and markets”
Petra Schwager, Chief, Climate and Technology Partnerships (CTP) Division, UNIDO, “Sustainability guidelines for hydrogen projects”
Part 1: Hydrogen Storage and Transport Infrastructure
Session 1: Infrastructure and Pipelines
- Carole Le Henaff, Head of EU Affairs, Storengy
- Siegfried Kiss, Head of Business Development, RAG Austria AG, “Hydrogen Market Ramp-Up: Key Element – H2 Storage”
- Ning Lin, Chief Economist, Bureau of Economic Geology, UT Austin, “Geological Storage of Hydrogen: Screening and Valuation Framework”
- Fabrizio de Nigris, Market Strategy Manager, Snam S.p.A., “Infrastructures for Hydrogen transport”
Session 2: Maritime Shipping
- Peter Wells, Chairmand and CEO, LH2 Europe, “Liquid Hydrogen Supply Chain Project and Maritime Transport”
- Erhan Erdogan, Team Lead Regulatory Affairs, Hydrogenious LOHC, “Carrying the new energy world. Handling hydrogen as an oil”
- Bert De Backker, Policy & Strategy Manager, EAME, ExxonMobil, “Enabling a sustainable hydrogen market ramp-up”
- Nicolas Jensen, Director of Regulatory Affairs, TES-H2, “Enabling a sustainable hydrogen market ramp-up”
Part 2: Enabling the Sustainability Credentials of Hydrogen
Rainer Quitzow, Research Group Leader, Research Institute for Sustainability, “Introduction to Part 2”
Session 3: CO2 Standards and Certification: The State-of-play and the Way forward
- Lissy Langer, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, DTU, “Hydrogen certificate trade – Lessons learned from Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)”
- Jérémie Brillet, Head of Hydrogen & New Energy, Romande Energie, “Hydrogen projects and CO2 certification”
- Ruta Baltause, Policy Officer, DG Energy, European Commission
- Daria Nochevnik, Head of Policy and Advocacy, Hydrogen Council
Session 4: Beyond CO2 – Ensuring Sustainable Investment in a Hydrogen Economy
- Alice Ruczinski, European Funding Manager, Lhyfe
- Henry Rushton, Director, EMEA Hydrogen Lead, ING
- Roland Schulze, Managerial Advisor, Low Carbon Energy Technologies, EIB
- Raghavan Narayanan, Associate Director, EBRD
- Marian Rodriguez, Global Head of Standards, Climate Bonds Initiative