Cite report
IEA (2024), Global Hydrogen Review 2024, IEA, Paris /reports/global-hydrogen-review-2024, Licence: CC BY 4.0
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Policies
Highlights
- Policy support is now taking strides towards implementation, with almost USD 100 billion of public funds being announced, entering into force, or being allocated to projects in the past year. Nearly two thirds of these funds are at the announcement stage and thus are still uncertain, and 95% come from advanced economies, which typically have longer-standing hydrogen strategies. Funding for the supply side is 1.5 times higher than for the demand side.
- Nineteen new hydrogen strategies were published in the past 12 months, bringing the total to 60, and now covering countries that account for over 84% of global energy-related CO2 emissions. Most of the new strategies were from emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), and most new targets are for production. This represents just the beginning of the policy-making process – so far none of the new targets are binding or tied to specific policies.
- Funding related to demand-side policies from the past 12 months adds up to USD 40 billion. About 20% of these funds target existing applications, while more than half – 60% – is for new applications. Policies already in place could trigger demand for 6 Mtpa of hydrogen by 2030, which would be equivalent to only half of the amount envisaged by announced demand targets, as little as 15-20% of production targets, and less than 10% of what is needed in the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario. Around two thirds of the funding are from Germany alone, through support for industrial decarbonisation and power.
- Public subsidies were the most common policy instrument in developed markets, while tax incentives are common across EMDEs. Competitive bidding was used in a diverse range of countries, with auctions carried out in Egypt, Europe, India and Oman in order to facilitate market formation, price discovery, and competition. Nine countries introduced incentives for electrolyser and fuel cell manufacturing, but only six of them have policies already in force.
- At COP 28, 37 governments committed to pursue mutual recognition of national certification schemes based on common design principles. Towards the same aim, 14 Latin American countries launched “CertHiLAC”, backed by Multilateral Development Banks. In December 2023, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published a Technical Specification that provides the basis for a full ISO standard for the methodology for determining the GHG emissions associated with hydrogen production, conditioning and transport. This is expected to be published in 2025/2026.