The first episode of the new edition of the #FSRInsights series hosted by Marzia Sesini and Nicolò Rossetto welcomed keynote speaker Laima Eicke from the Research Institute for Sustainability Studies (RIFS) to present her paper “Green hydrogen value chains in the industrial sector—Geopolitical and market implications”. Joining her as discussants were Franziska Holtz from DIW Berlin and James Kneebone from FSR.

Laima opened the session by presenting the policy context for the paper, the methodology, and the key findings. She highlighted that there is potential for clean hydrogen demand to grow exponentially from now to 2050, subject to competition with other technologies. However, although the level of hydrogen final demand is uncertain, in certain sectors, like chemicals and steel, there are few or no alternatives to renewable hydrogen. These are, therefore, the sectors the study focuses on, hypothesizing that the decarbonization of these industries will significantly change the organization of their value chains.