We need a Genuinely Clean Energy Ministerial

Hot on the heels of New York Climate Week (see our write up here), governments companies and civil society groups are gathering in Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil this week for one of the year's largest clean energy events, convening the Clean Energy Ministerial and Mission Innovation communities along with G20 Energy Ministers on the road to COP 29 in Baku and COP 30 in Belém do Pará in 2025.  

Our message is simple: we need a genuinely clean energy ministerial. This is particularly true of hydrogen which has enormous potential to support a just energy transition. But loose talk of “clean” and “low-carbon” hydrogen often dodges essential questions. 

We need standards that accurately measure greenhouse gas emissions – including independent verification and public reporting of methane leakage and carbon capture. Too often, governments and standards bodies are allowing loopholes that enable greenwashing of dirty hydrogen.  

The risks were highlighted on 27 September when the European Commission published its draft methodology for low- carbon hydrogen. There are many aspects that need detailed scrutiny over the coming weeks, but it is already clear that the draft rules for upstream methane leakage are too loose, significantly underestimating the real-world emissions from fossil-based hydrogen. 

It may sound obvious, but hydrogen strategies need to be aligned with net zero targets (as documented in Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs). On Friday the IEA published the Breakthrough Agenda Report 2024 which takes stock of progress in making clean technologies and sustainable practices more affordable, accessible and attractive. The report does not define a specific carbon intensity limit for renewable and low-carbon hydrogen, but it does stress that: 

“All of the production routes encompassed by this term will need to achieve verifiable low-carbon intensities that trend towards near zero by 2030. For example, this implies that fossil-based hydrogen production must operate with high carbon capture rates applied to all streams containing CO2, and that the captured carbon must be permanently stored underground to prevent its release into the atmosphere. Additionally, it is critical that methane leakage is reduced to near zero, if not completely avoided. Rigorous measurement, reporting and verification of emissions will be necessary. ”

- Breakthrough Agenda Report 2024

The Report concludes that “not enough is being done to create demand and establish the infrastructure needed to deploy renewable and low-carbon hydrogen”. We would add that the Report also shows that very few countries are on track to achieve verifiable low-carbon intensities that trend towards near zero by 2030, and that too many countries are supporting hydrogen strategies that obviously exceed this threshold.  

We continue to see a deliberate effort to avoid addressing what is genuinely clean hydrogen, and important gaps in the methods being used to measure progress. Taken together, we see a growing risk that the market for high credibility green hydrogen is being undermined by low credibility blue hydrogen. We will be tackling this problem at CEM, at COP and beyond.  

To learn more, read our report Weak Emissions Accounting Can Undermine Hydrogen’s Role in Global Decarbonization published together with the Green Hydrogen Catapult based on RMI analysis and this write up in Hydrogen Insight.  

Sam Bartlett

Director of the Green Hydrogen Standard,

Green Hydrogen Organisation