Assessing safeguards for hydrogen sustainability in the H2Global mechanism

The H2Global mechanism lacks minimum sustainability standards, leaving the ambition of future tenders to individual funders. While the BMWK pilot tender aligns with EU regulations on renewable electricity additionality and correlation, it fails to incentivise surplus electricity sharing for local energy access. Water and land use safeguards are insufficient, as they overlook competing local demands for resources and may miss locally significant sites. Additionally, local value creation measures are limited by an export-focused design and unclear guidelines, reducing the potential for sustainable economic impact in producing countries.

• The H2Global mechanism does not establish its own minimum sustainability standards, meaning the ambition of future tenders depends entirely on the objectives of the funders. This creates potential variability in how the mechanism impacts sustainable development and climate goals.
• The BMWK pilot tender's renewable electricity requirements follow EU rules on additionality, temporal correlation, and geographical correlation to ensure new renewable capacity is used. However, the tender misses an opportunity to encourage projects to share surplus electricity to support domestic decarbonisation or local energy access.
• Water sustainability safeguards in the BMWK pilot tender prohibit using groundwater or human-consumption water in dry regions but fail to account for competing industrial or agricultural water needs. There is also no requirement for the additionality of desalination plants or water treatment facilities, which may lead to hydrogen production being prioritised over local water access.
• Land use safeguards in the BMWK pilot tender protect globally recognised high-biodiversity areas and carbon pools but may overlook sacred or locally significant sites. The tender lacks mechanisms to address land disputes or competing uses such as pastoral or agricultural activities.
• Local value creation in the BMWK pilot tender is hindered by unclear job allocation guidelines and a limited scope for infrastructure investment. Furthermore, the H2Global mechanism's focus on exports prioritises low-value-added commodities, limiting the ability of producing countries to capture downstream industrial value.

APA

NewClimate Institute (2025). Assessing safeguards for hydrogen sustainability in the H2Global mechanism. https://newclimate.org/resources/publications/assessing-safeguards-for-hydrogen-sustainability-in-the-h2global-mechanism

Chicago

NewClimate Institute. Assessing safeguards for hydrogen sustainability in the H2Global mechanism. 2025. https://newclimate.org/resources/publications/assessing-safeguards-for-hydrogen-sustainability-in-the-h2global-mechanism.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=NewClimate Institute |title=Assessing safeguards for hydrogen sustainability in the H2Global mechanism |date=11 February 2025 |url=https://newclimate.org/resources/publications/assessing-safeguards-for-hydrogen-sustainability-in-the-h2global-mechanism |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{newclimateinstitute2025assessing, author = {{NewClimate Institute}}, title = {{Assessing safeguards for hydrogen sustainability in the H2Global mechanism}}, institution = {NewClimate Institute}, year = {2025}, month = feb, url = {https://newclimate.org/resources/publications/assessing-safeguards-for-hydrogen-sustainability-in-the-h2global-mechanism}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }