Helping Developing Countries Decarbonize Hard-to-Abate Sectors through the Scale Up of Green Hydrogen Solutions
Drastic action is needed across all the sectors of the world’s economy to limit the increase in average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Limiting greenhouse gas emissions is a challenge, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors such as steel production, shipping, and heavy road transport. Hydrogen produced with renewable energy resources, also known as green or renewable hydrogen, can help address the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in these sectors while also providing a flexible option for energy storage.
However, specialized knowledge and capabilities are required to enable renewable hydrogen’s production, storage, and use projects in developing countries and emerging markets. In addition, the necessary policies, regulations, and standards must also be established to ensure project bankability.
Since 2020, ESMAP established the Hydrogen Support Program as an independent initiative to deliver strong analytical work to catalyze the deployment of renewable hydrogen projects. The program aims to raise awareness about the potential for green hydrogen to create economic opportunities in developing countries and decarbonize energy-consuming activities. The Hydrogen Support Program addresses the challenges associated with the deployment of renewable hydrogen projects, such as technology risks, capacity building, regulatory requirements, and economic analyses.
In collaboration with local teams from the Energy and Extractives and Transport Practices, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Hydrogen Support Program works at the country level, to prioritize projects that that could use renewable hydrogen or its derivatives as fuels or feedstock in developing countries. There is also a strong focus on regions with excellent renewable resources, and countries producing and consuming hydrogen and derived products (ammonia and methanol).
The program, through grant funding supports World Bank recipient countries to create an enabling environment to scale up green hydrogen projects through three main workstreams:
Technical Assistance: The program directly funded in-depth analytical work and activities to support the green hydrogen industry in more than 30 countries around the globe. The program is currently offering technical support to governments in Latin America, Europe, Central Asia, Africa, Middle East, South Asia and East Asia.
Global Knowledge: The program leads knowledge creation on green hydrogen across the World Bank Group. It uses knowledge-sharing activities and advisory to support teams preparing hydrogen technical assistance and lending engagements.
Capacity building: Technical government officials involved in green hydrogen industry have access to study tours, trainings, and global webinars in support of the efficient and effective implementation of green hydrogen projects, to help achieve SDG 7 and commitments derived from the Paris Agreement.
Source: ESMAP, Green Hydrogen Support Program.