ARTICLE A global roadmap for a narrow path Hydrogen is now at the heart of the work of the International Energy Agency. We have all heard the proliferation of Net Zero pledges made by countries and companies over the past year. The world’s level of commitment to fight climate change has never been higher. But take a step back, and the picture becomes much less encouraging. A huge gap remains between rhetoric and reality. Last year we In this context, hydrogen will be critical, but we need to get it out received a record number of new climate commitments, but we of the starting blocks immediately.Fortunately, there are many are also heading for close to a record increase in global CO2 promising signals: emissions. • Many governments are developing their hydrogen strategies In light of this, we have undertaken a new IEA roadmap to spell as part of the long-term climate and energy ambitions. Some out what Net Zero by 2050 means in practice, and how the have set ambitious targets, such as the EU which aims at world can get there. The Roadmap provides a much-needed 40GW of electrolyser capacity to be installed by 2030. dose of reality. Let’s make no mistake, the most feasible path is • A new, big push on hydrogen innovation is coming from the narrow. But it is still achievable, and we have no time to spare. United States. The Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Earthshot initiative aims to cut the costs of clean hydrogen by 80% by The race to Net Zero is no ordinary race. Countries are 2030. starting in very different places. Some, especially the advanced • Many other countries are shoring up ambitious financial economies, will need to finish well before the rest. But this is a commitments for hydrogen, including France, Germany, a Jap race against time, not against each other. No one wins this race unless everyone finishes. One way to think of hydrogen is that it is today where solar photovoltaics and batteries were about ten years ago: The first priority is to make the 2020s a decade of massive technologies with huge potential that were still uneconomically clean energy expansion, focusing on the technologies like expensive. It is very well possible that, ten years from now, we solar, wind and electric vehicles that are ready for the big will think of today’s hydrogen policies and strategies as having time – plus a huge push to improve energy efficiency. But prompted its big jump out of the starting blocks and into the the world also needs a major innovation push to bring new energy market at a sprinting pace. technologies to market. Some technologies which are not mature today will be essential in our journey down the narrow The global challenge of climate change demands global path, so we will need to deploy them at scale to finish the job solutions. The international community must up its game after 2030. significantly to ensure that all countries have access to the 16