producers with green hydrogen off-takers through a mass balance. Development of common infrastructure is one of the most important roles that any government can play. The principles applied to build road networks, railway tracks, and electricity grids must be used to build pipelines. Planning CO₂ and hydrogen pipelines together will create synergies. Coordination is the key. What it means to the private and public sectors Pipeline and transmission infrastructure requires cross-border collaboration, rapid development of international pipeline and CO₂ purity standards, and massive investment in common infrastructure. It will also require regional peace and international security. There is ultra- important work to be done in many domains. The role of governments must be to focus on effective and coherent policy development and common infrastructure enablement. The private sector, not governments, has the expertise and resources to excel in technology innovation, project finance, and project development.
Policy must focus on GHG gas emissions reductions as the problem. It must allow the solutions, such as renewable power generation, long-duration energy storage, hydrogen (of any colour), direct air capture, geological CO₂ storage, batteries, electrification of industrial processes, heat pumps, and energy efficiency, to evolve. Regulators must enable these solutions with permitting and must simultaneously remain broadly technology agnostic and avoid incentivising one solution ahead of another. Nobody knew what trajectory hydrogen decarbonisation and CO₂ management would take five years ago. If we had, then policies and incentives would have been written differently. However, there is still some time to act and plenty of good reason to adjust and refocus in the second half of this decade. Policymakers must review this dynamic situation to set a clear direction in line with the latest facts, the best research, and likely technology deployment trajectories.
Stephen B Harrison sbh@sbh4.de
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
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