Orange News: Civic Exchange is releasing a white paper titled “The Hydrogen Strategy of Hong Kong”. The research project is funded by the Strategic Public Policy Research Funding Scheme of The Government of the HKSAR, administrated by the Chief Executive Policy Unit. The white paper highlights the importance of a policy framework to support the government’s forthcoming Strategy of Hydrogen Development in Hong Kong (‘the Strategy’), which will be published in the first half of 2024.
Stems from two workshops held in 2024 which gathered over eighty key stakeholders to gauge the level of interest to attain net-zero future using hydrogen as a fuel in the mobility sector, the white paper provides a comprehensive understanding to Hong Kong’s hydrogen development and identifies implications for stakeholders who have a vested interest in the local hydrogen market.
Hydrogen fuel cell technology presents another trailblazing opportunity to greening the transport sector, which contributes to 19.2% of Hong Kong’s total carbon emissions1. The white paper offers a panorama of hydrogen development in Mainland, Japan and South Korea on distilling strategies for Hong Kong to formulate a hydrogen policy framework for the transport sector. Mr. Evan Auyang, Chairman of Civic Exchange, states, “The global attention to establishing policies not only support hydrogen from manufacture to end-use, but also incubate a ‘participation for all’ strategy to drive transport sector to zero emission.”
Findings from the workshop shows the business sector faces challenges pertaining the unmet needs on cost, infrastructure and policy uncertainty. The upcoming Strategy must address these factors favouring a business-friendly sentiment and solidifying trust among market participants within in a local context.
To deal with the cost challenge, the white paper encourages the government to adopt science-based green finance policies as a catalyst to guide the grey to green hydrogen transition. Professor Keith Chan, Assistant Professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, co-investigator, states, “Adopting an internationally interoperable taxonomy that defines what constitutes a climate-aligned approach to the manufacture and use of hydrogen, would help to mobilise more capital from international financial institutions and accelerate the green transition.”
Looking ahead, the white paper recommends four action areas priming hydrogen for success in Hong Kong to build hydrogen policy framework. Mr. Lawrence Iu, Executive Director of Civic Exchange, principal investigator, concludes, “To strengthen future policy works, policymakers must act on establishing a hydrogen energy industry innovation system, coordinating the construction of hydrogen infrastructure, building a comprehensive hydrogen policy and regulation, as well as diversifying hydrogen energy trial projects.” Professor Liang Dong, Assistant Professor at City University of Hong Kong, adds on, “These actions are imperative to unleash potential for the emerging hydrogen market and coalesce efforts towards the common goal of achieving net-zero by 2050.”
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