Thread by @DrSimEvans

How lobbying works Pt 994

Heat & transport are the "two key sectors which appear to have the strongest potential for hydrogen"

Really?

So says Council for Science & Technology, chaired by @uksciencechief to advise UK PM

And who *really* says that?

1/

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

The line comes from a letter to @beisgovuk secretary of state @KwasiKwarteng, PM & other senior ministers

The letter is billed as advice on decarbonising homes & the development of a hydrogen economy

It's signed by Patrick Vallance @uksciencechief

2/

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

But who actually wrote the advice?

"We would like to thank Dervilla Mitchell (Director of Arup) and Paul Stein (Chief Technology Officer, Rolls-Royce plc) for leading the briefing sessions and development of this advice."

3/

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

Nothing wrong with having sector expertise to help develop tricky technical advice for govt and, after all, they have declared their interests.

Right?

4/

gov.uk/government/pub…

Thing is, both Arup and Rolls Royce have a business interest in hydrogen, more specifically hydrogen for heat and, er, transport

Here's Arup…

"Arup helps pioneering hydrogen houses" etc etc

5/

google.com/search?q=arup+…

And here's Rolls Royce…

"We see an important role for hydrogen in helping to lower emissions; fuelling buses and lorries as well as for energy storage and home heating…We are developing a range of products based on hydrogen"

(you get the picture)

6/

rolls-royce.com/innovation/net…

None of this would matter except for the small fact that building heat & (most) road transport are almost universally identified – by @theCCCuk @IEA @MLiebreich etc etc – as among the *lowest value* applications of hydrogen

7/

Here's the @theCCCuk central view from its sixth carbon budget advice, with building heat & surface transport making up a very small share of hydrogen demand in 2050 (cf shipping, industry, power sector etc)

carbonbrief.org/ccc-uk-must-cu…

8/

Here's analysis behind @theCCCuk central view on home heat specifically (HT @heatpolicyrich ) in which none of the mix in 2050 is pure hydrogen boilers (only "hybrid" heat pump + boiler)

9/

theccc.org.uk/publication/de…

And here's @IEA on hydrogen use in transport (basically only for long-distance trucking) and overall – again, mostly not for buildings or transport

10/

carbonbrief.org/iea-renewables…

To conclude, hydrogen is likely to be very important for reaching net-zero – perhaps even vital – but none of the independent experts I've spoken to see heat & road transport – barring long-distance trucking – as priority areas for the fuel

11/ends

carbonbrief.org/in-depth-qa-do…