(资料图片)

by Liu Qiyu

The 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos Forum, is running from Tuesday through Thursday in Tianjin, China. [Photo/Liu Qiyu]

TIANJIN, June 28 (China Economic Net) - Green hydrogen is playing a pivotal role in helping China realize its strategic ambition to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and become carbon-neutral by 2060, highlighted a report launched by the World Economic Forum on Tuesday at the 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions held in Tianjin, China.

The new report, Green Hydrogen in China: A Roadmap for Progress, in collaboration with Accenture and China Hydrogen Alliance, outlines the challenges faced by China’s green hydrogen industry. It identifies six key barriers and goals, related to cost, infrastructure, market demand, industry standards and certification, technology, and evolution and cooperation. To overcome these challenges, the paper proposes 35 enabling measures, to be executed in three phases from now until 2030.

China has defined the end of this decade as the deadline for the country to peak its carbon emissions, and the year 2030 marks the start of in-depth decarbonization in multiple industries. Back in 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued Medium- and Long-Term Plan for the Development of the Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035), a 15-year plan to develop the hydrogen energy industry and boost the proportion of such energy generated from renewables.

The country produced some 33 million metric tons of hydrogen in 2021, making it the world"s largest producer, and the production is expected to reach 43 million tons by 2030. China Hydrogen Alliance estimated that green hydrogen will take up more in the energy mix, from 1 percent in 2019 to 10 percent by 2030, and the market scale will have increased nearly 30 times by then.

“However, despite the growing focus on green hydrogen in the past few years, challenges of cost, infrastructure and demand are preventing it from making significant contributions to China"s energy transition. As a result, green hydrogen currently makes up a tiny fraction of the country’s hydrogen production and consumption, less than 0.1% in 2021," reads the report.

With strong policy guidance and incentives, China has the potential to commercialize green hydrogen technologies to transform its industrial system and the wider economy, the report argues. To deliver this new technology at the scale required, China will need to focus on developing the sector through industrial, regional and global collaboration.

“The industry is indeed at an initial stage, yet the public and private sector leaders in China cannot underestimate how catalytic the role of green hydrogen could be,” said Liming Chen, Chair of Greater China, World Economic Forum. “We need partnerships across sectors, from upstream to downstream, to make sure we accelerate the momentum.”