Global Hydrogen Energy: Potentials and Challenges

Various initiatives are underway around the world to utilize hydrogen technology, and this was an important topic at the G20 Energy Ministerial Meeting held in India in 2023, where the “G20 High Level Voluntary Principles on Hydrogen” were published as an annex to promote international cooperation on hydrogen. The United States and the European Union have already begun to provide strong incentives for hydrogen production, and India has also begun to provide incentives in the hydrogen area, backed by its abundance of renewable energy. In this global environment, Japan, the first country in the world to adopt a national hydrogen strategy, is continuously working on the development of hydrogen technology as an early investor, and has succeeded in developing technologies for all phases of hydrogen production, transportation, and utilization. Hydrogen technology is a very important technology that contributes to realistic energy transitions, and there is a definite role that Japan can play in the future, especially in the Asian region, by deepening cooperation with related countries to utilize the developed technology and to establish an international hydrogen value chain.