Towards a Comprehensive Framework for Assessing Sustainable Green Hydrogen Partnerships

Recently there has been a lot of international hype surrounding hydrogen and the opportunities it holds for the energy transition. Particularly in building up greener economies and decarbonization efforts. For those new to the hydrogen economy conversation, hydrogen can be used as a renewable, or “cleaner” fuel source, a means to decarbonize carbon emission-intensive industries, and a means to store renewable energy for later use. There is a catch to establishing hydrogen economies: the countries that have the highest demand for hydrogen (i.e., European countries) cannot adequately produce hydrogen to meet their demands. Therefore, there is a need felt by industrialized countries for establishing hydrogen partnerships with prospective producers (i.e., countries in the global south with hydrogen-production-compatible resources).  With this backdrop in mind, the students of this year’s Technology Assessment MEG elective module set about examining and proposing possible criteria for sustainable partnerships in prospective hydrogen markets.

With the guidance of Prof. Dr. Philipp Späth, I and the other eight students of the module, pooled together our diverse academic and social backgrounds, to produce a heuristic for technology assessments regarding sustainable green hydrogen partnerships. We looked to a pre-existing framework published by the Öko-Institut on establishing sustainable importation of hydrogen criteria in green hydrogen partnerships and assessed the framework for possible gaps in the criteria, as well as areas where the criteria could be further contextualized. The outcome of the study is visualized in the tables below, where one can compare the original framework from the Öko-Instiut (table 1) with the additions proposed by this year’s TA students (table 2).

Table 1: Possible Criteria for Sustainable Green Hydrogen.

Source: Sustainability dimensions of imported hydrogen (working paper by the Öko-Institut, 2021)

Table 2: Updated Framework for Possible Criteria for Sustainable Green Hydrogen.

Source: Towards a Comprehensive Framework for Assessing Sustainable Green Hydrogen Partnerships (our working paper, 2023).

While the tables show how that framework could be improved, what is not easily seen but imperative to be stressed, is a point made in the Öko-Institut’s framework and firmly supported by the study conducted in the TA module. The point is that the incentive for establishing green hydrogen economies is felt stronger by the global north than the global south. For many developing countries it is not a matter of committing to an energy transition but rather a struggle to secure sufficient energy generation capacity for domestic demands in the first place. This is a definite challenge for establishing hydrogen markets because of the risk it poses for such partnerships to reinforce old colonial relationships between the future buyers (Europe) and producers (South America and Africa) of hydrogen. Therefore, it is important that future green hydrogen partnerships have balanced benefits for all partners and that legal checks (standards, certifications, multilateral agreements) must be in place to avoid exploitative scenarios. Moreover, efforts and investment into resilient capacity building of and coordination among prospective producers must be incentivized, otherwise, the benefits of green hydrogen will not be reaped by the producers themselves – a supply chain outcome that would tragically resemble many others before it, such as with chocolate or coffee. Green hydrogen must be equitable, if it isn’t, then is it really sustainable?

Interested in this Module?

If you are Meggie, or from another program in the faculty (this year there were two REM students) and are interested in questions of environmental and social sustainability for future technologies in future societies, the Technology Assessment MEG elective module is for you. In a module designed to provide the experience of “learning by doing”, the students roleplay as the Office of Technology Assessment in the Bundestag (Büro für Technikfolgen-Abschätzung beim Deutschen Bundestag), also known as TAB, the German Parliament, and as “specialists” who provide expertise in the research phase of the technology assessment. Through the process of roleplay, discussion exchanges between the students acting as the parliamentarians and those acting as TAB, result in a proposed research project based on agreed points. This project is then green-lit by the parliamentarians as the “upcoming” technology assessment (TA) and TAB allocates research tasks to the specialists. Again, there are discussion exchanges, but this time between those acting as TAB and those acting as specialists. These discussions further shape the technology assessment, as terms of feasibility and clarity are debated. The research tasks are then agreed upon and carried out by the specialists. Their findings are synthesized by TAB into the TA report and the product is then presented back to the parliamentarians. The TA report is either accepted or denied by the parliamentarians, based on the terms first agreed upon in the discussion between them and TAB. This is how we created the report above.

Sounds like quite a process, right? This elective is structured quite differently from what a Meggie might expect in a typical module. Yes, like every almost module, there is group work. However, the experience is different, as the elements of roleplay, the freedom to determine the direction of research, and the overall impromptu structure of the module, create an experience that is uniquely immersive, demanding, and most of all, memorable. For anyone interested in the module and wondering if I would recommend it, the answer is yes. I will forewarn you that the module may be more demanding on time and self-organization than others, however, the experience is, as I said, immersive, memorable, and most of all, rewarding. You will be amazed by your end product and the amount of brainpower and research output a large group can produce and synthesize. We sure were, and I believe that is worth experiencing in the run of one’s studies.

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