Years of EU-Japan hydrogen cooperation finally brings success

Several European hydrogen players signed cooperation agreements with their Japanese counterparts, during a visit to Tokyo by European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson, on Monday (3 June) – where tackling China’s clean tech dominance is becoming a priority.

The EU has long sought closer ties with Japan on hydrogen. Discussions between the two economic giants, resulting in a broad green agreement in 2021 and an EU-Japan Memorandum of Cooperation on Hydrogen in late 2022.

Building on these prior exchanges, a business delegation accompanied Simson on her Japan visit, to turn verbal commitments into agreements. 

“Hydrogen will be an internationally traded commodity, and close EU-Japan cooperation will be essential for promoting renewable and low-carbon hydrogen globally,” Simson told attendees at the Japan Energy Summit. 

Facilitating cooperation, the main players in Europe’s hydrogen sector – Germany’s €5 billion H2Global funding vehicle, lobby group Hydrogen Europe, and the EU’s €3 billion Hydrogen Bank and €1 billion ‘Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking’ research outfit – signed agreements with their Japanese counterparts.

The move politically minded has one eye on the global regulatory race to define hydrogen, something EU politicians consider their key competence.

“Europe and Japan were global first movers and we should, together, drive the process of setting standards and certification schemes,” says Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO of Hydrogen Europe. 

Japan’s hydrogen strategy, last updated in 2023, maintains an industry-friendly compromise, concerning the environmental friendliness of hydrogen production.

Subsidies are available to hydrogen, emitting up to 3.4kg of CO2 per kg, when it is produced. Meaning hydrogen making use of natural gas receives government subsidies, even if  just 66% of resulting carbon emissions are captured.

“We can learn a lot from Japanese pragmatism,” adds Chatzimarkakis.

A more substantial industry agreement between Kawasaki Heavy Industry and the EU’s Daimler Trucks – who both see a role for hydrogen in heavy-duty trucking – was similarly announced by the Commission, but has yet to be signed, understands Euractiv.

The two companies are “jointly studying the establishment and optimisation of parts of a liquid hydrogen supply chain,” said a Daimler Truck spokesperson.

China, China, China

Instead of hydrogen, the joint statement of the Energy Commissioner and Japan’s economy minister, Ken Saitoni starts with a focus on a common competitor.

The two sharing “deep concerns about economic dependence on specific sources of supply for strategic goods,” reads the statement, blaming the “weaponisation” of a “wide range of non-market policies and practices, such as market-distorting industrial subsidies.”

A clear warning to China, which is under EU investigation for distorting electric vehicle markets. Several Chinese or Chinese-linked firms, pulled out of tenders after being subject to a Commission subsidy probe.

China maybe dominant in solar, but Europe has mostly managed to ward off wind power incursions – unlike Japan, where the first Chinese offshore wind turbines were installed in 2023.

“Work will begin in the fields of wind, solar and hydrogen,” the joint statement reads, highlighting the “importance of working with like-minded partners to build and strengthen transparent, resilient and sustainable supply chains.” The declaration also says that a dedicated industrial policy coordination group will be established.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Rajnish Singh]

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