The UK government has released its much-awaited Hydrogen Strategy as part of its commitment to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The strategy, which has been anticipated as key to unlocking significant private-sector investment in the hydrogen sector, sets out the government’s detailed plans to achieve a goal of 5GW of clean hydrogen by 2030. This will also involve kick-starting the creation of highly skilled employment in hydrogen and similar green sectors.

The release of the Hydrogen Strategy also now places the UK alongside other countries such as Australia, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and China, and a number of European countries (Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Netherlands and Norway), which have previously announced national hydrogen strategies, as well at the EU’s hydrogen strategy which was published last year. All of this goes towards the emerging global ”arms race” to establish an early lead in a future US$2.5tr hydrogen economy, as countries seek to develop the resources necessary to create green jobs, attract private sector investment, unlock export opportunities and increase their national energy security.

The Hydrogen Strategy sets out the UK Government’s use cases, the development of a full hydrogen value chain and the steps to achieving a hydrogen economy. Alongside this, the UK Government has published its proposed business model to incentivise low carbon hydrogen production, as well as consulting on the design of the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund and a new low carbon hydrogen standard.