Following today’s news (17 March) that the UK government wants to be the first major economy to have its own low-carbon industrial sector to help meet its climate targets;

Commenting on that the decarbonization fund will include projects such as hydrogen gas, Sneha Susan Elias, Power Analyst at GlobalData, comments:

“Hydrogen will play a crucial role in the UK’s clean energy transition with use cases such as transportation, buildings and power generation expected to see significant increase. Hydrogen will also have a key role to play in areas where direct electrification is challenging and in harder to abate sectors like steel, chemicals, long-haul transport and aviation. However, formulating a cost-effective and well-regulated transition is a complex issue, and the cost of producing hydrogen from renewable energy sources is currently expensive. While costs are falling – largely due to falling renewable power costs – green hydrogen is still 2-3 times more expensive than blue hydrogen.”

Commenting on government investment in decarbonizing the industrial sector, Warren Wilson, Lead Analyst for Thematic Research at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“Green competition is critical to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the critical goal of the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change. This competition is emerging worldwide as investors, customers, partners, NGOs, regulators, employees, and communities all push for climate action.

“In the past, many companies felt answerable only to shareholders. Today they recognize they have a variety of different stakeholders. But on climate, all stakeholders have the same goal – halting greenhouse gas emissions. This unified pressure sets up a positive feedback loop that drives de-carbonization across all sectors and geographies.

“Companies are coming to understand that climate risk is financial risk. Those that take leadership in this green competition will win loyalty from customers, partners, investors – from all stakeholders — in a self-reinforcing cycle. They will gain long-term competitive advantage in the new green economy, while those that fall behind will face increasing business risk.”