Hy-Impact Series Study 1: Hydrogen for Economic Growth

The UK Prime Minister announced in early June 2019 that the UK will pass legislation to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. This places the UK as the first major economy to make such a commitment and follows the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC) recently published “Net Zero” report, which showed that eliminating emissions by 2050 is technologically feasible. These levels of ambition mean deep decarbonisation, a challenging task for all sectors of the UK economy and will involve largescale deployment of innovative technologies. Whilst a variety of technologies and approaches are available for decarbonising different sectors of the economy, the CCC recommended prioritising investments into two complementary technologies, Hydrogen and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), due to their pivotal roles in enabling long-term decarbonisation. Several public and private stakeholders, including the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Equinor, had already expressed interest in deploying these technologies. Ensuring wide-scale hydrogen and CCS deployment will require a strong policy push and a large capital investment. It is thus paramount to understand the financial implications of this deployment, and the opportunities and benefits it provides for industry and the UK as a whole, beyond wide-scale decarbonisation. This study examines the the role hydrogen and CCS could play in the UK economy up to 2050 and beyond.
You can read the full report here