Europe must seize the moment and accelerate the deployment of clean hydrogen at scale, with a focus on locking in the best near-term opportunities rather than chasing perfection, according to Ivana Jemelkova, CEO of industry association the Hydrogen Council.
Failure to move forward at pace in Europe will put at risk the extensive investment that has already materialised in areas such as electrolyser manufacturing, hydrogen production and fuel cells, she told Hydrogen Economist in an interview during the Hydrogen and Carbon Capture Technology World Expo 2025 in Hamburg in October.
“Wake up Europe, please, this really is the moment,” Jemelkova said. “We are going round in circles and hesitating. We have to be practical and pragmatic to get something done. Instead of trying to realise a huge vision from the get-go, we need to go after the near-term opportunities that show that it works, and start the snowball—it is a case of go big or go home.”
Jemelkova drew contrasts with the approach in China, where she said policymakers allowed companies the space to adopt more of a pragmatic step-by-step approach to the build-out of the hydrogen economy.
China leads the world in clean hydrogen investment, with about $33b in committed capital, according to the Hydrogen Council. North America ranks second, with $23b, while Europe, previously the global leader, has slipped to third with about $19b.
“Here we start with the perfect. In China they start with the possible and get to the perfect,” she said. “In China they are building an industry that now has the power to take on the world.”
The key concern for global hydrogen-sector CEOs is the slow development of demand, according to a recent survey conducted by the Hydrogen Council as part of its new Global Hydrogen Compass report.
Demand is growing, with 3.6mt/yr of supply now under firm offtake contracts, according to the Hydrogen Council. “That is a good start, but the volumes now need to double and triple,” said Jemelkova. About a third of this offtake is in new use cases for hydrogen, including power generation, steel and mobility. Mobility applications are growing in China and South Korea especially. The demand side lags the supply side, where about 6mt/yr of production has been committed to, according to the Hydrogen Council.
One of the misconceptions about clean hydrogen is that it already has access to all the support it needs, Jemelkova said. However, this is not the case in reality. “Everything we need seems to be there, but it is on paper. In reality, the policies have not really been implemented, the money has not come through to businesses.”
Another 8mt/yr of demand could be unlocked if existing policies in Europe, Japan and South Korea, and the US were fully implemented to support business cases, she said.
US under scrutiny
Nowhere has hydrogen policy come under greater scrutiny lately than in the US, where the window for projects seeking to qualify for the key 45V production tax credit has been shortened under changes made by the Trump administration.
A significant number of projects are expected to fall away because of this change to the 45V timing. However, Jemelkova said the US remained very well placed to be a major supplier of clean hydrogen to markets such as Europe, Japan and South Korea. The 45V remained one of the key policies which are fundamental to the “moment of lift” the clean hydrogen sector needs.
“Hydrogen fits perfectly with the Trump administration’s agenda of energy dominance and energy abundance,” she said. “It is another molecule-based product that the US can produce in volume and ship out to the world at very competitive prices.”
Missed opportunity
The US was understood to have played a role in the recent postponement of International Maritime Organization (IMO) talks over the implementation of the shipping industry’s decarbonisation strategy, in a setback for the deployment of clean fuels, including hydrogen-based derivatives.
Jemelkova acknowledged that the breakdown of talks was a setback and a missed opportunity.
“The biggest enemy right now is uncertainty, and we were hoping to have certainty, [and] guidance from the IMO on what to do next,” she said. “But it is not the end of the road, the overall decarbonisation strategy remains in place. Nothing has changed on the targets, but it is about how we get there and how quickly we get there.”
COP30
On the world climate stage, the Hydrogen Council, which has 140 members from 20 different countries, planned to be at COP30 in Brazil in November. The meeting comes as the narrative around hydrogen’s role in mitigating climate change has shifted. Policymakers now see its contribution to energy security and the competitiveness of industrial sectors as just as important, if not more important, according to several speakers in Hamburg.
“I do not think climate has gone away, but it has become a priority very much together with energy security and competitiveness,” said Jemelkova. Nevertheless, COP30 offers the sector a big opportunity to strengthen its case, particularly as Brazil sees hydrogen as “a big part of the future fuels agenda”, she added.
However, she stressed that COP30 should not be about “big declarations and agenda setting”. “It will be about walking the talk,” she said. “We are past the vision setting. We are all about execution. That will be the tone at COP30.”
Comments