Hydrogen-powered Aviation

Claire Young Excerpts

Tuesday 17th June 2025 Westminster Hall

[Claire Young (Thornbury and Yate) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for North Somerset (Sadik Al-Hassan) for securing this debate, which is particularly important for the west of England.

Hydrogen-powered flights have real potential to cut carbon emissions in a notoriously difficult to decarbonise industry, while still allowing people to enjoy flying around the world, as the aircraft would emit only water vapour. The industry needs support now, however, which means thinking about the technology, infrastructure and regulation.

Airbus, where many of my constituents work, is aiming for hydrogen-powered airliners by 2035. Its studies suggest that UK hydrogen aviation could support up to 110,000 jobs in this country, and we absolutely have the potential to show global leadership. When I discussed the ZEROe project on a visit to Airbus last year, it was trying to decide between hydrogen combustion and hydrogen fuel cells. It has now plumped for the latter, although it does not rule out direct combustion in the future. It and other manufacturers are working in collaboration with academia, and there is some excellent knowledge in this area in our local universities. We need to back investment in research, development and manufacturing infrastructure. Other companies such as GKN, which has a base in my constituency, are also looking at hydrogen.

The west of England has a long history of innovation in aviation, going back to the days of Sir George White; it has many things that co-ordinate to make it a place to invest. For example, just outside my constituency, we have the Bristol and Bath science park, and we have the national composites centre. Hydrogen molecules are very small, so containing it is a challenge, but that is where the national composites centre’s expertise can help. In the science park, the institute for advanced automotive propulsion systems is also looking at hydrogen.

Obviously, it is no good having hydrogen-fuelled aeroplanes if we do not have the hydrogen, so we need large-scale investment in green hydrogen. It is all very well having zero emissions on our flights, but if the electricity is being generated from non-low carbon power in the first place, there will still be associated emissions. As the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee has heard a number of times in its inquiries, it is really important that the Government make a decision about the future use of hydrogen. Given that we will only ever be able to produce a finite amount of green hydrogen, I think we need to prioritise it for industries where there are no realistic alternatives, including aviation.

We need to be thinking about how we produce that energy, and again our area has something to offer the country, because we have the potential for new nuclear at Oldbury and we have the River Severn, where there was a recent commission on tidal power. We therefore have the means of producing green energy. We have expertise in all those areas, with excellent nuclear specialism in our local universities, the aviation expertise to develop its use in aviation, and the facilities that I described in the Bristol and Bath science park to help to tackle some of the problems associated with deploying the technology.

On infrastructure, we obviously need to think about not just how we are producing that energy, but how we are delivering it to airports and how we are storing it. Again, that comes back to the question about the future of the gas grid in this country—will it be repurposed for hydrogen at some point? Regulation and having the right regulatory environment are important. People are very aware that hydrogen is highly flammable, but we can make it safe by putting the right protocols in place.

Our 2024 manifesto set out taxation reform that would help to redirect people away from frequent high carbon flights. It is important that we give people a means of judging the carbon emissions from their flights. Many companies will be looking at their own net zero aims, and it is important that people understand the implications of their choices when flying.

Hydrogen-powered aviation has the potential to cut transport emissions and boost our economy through new jobs. The west of England is particularly well placed to support the industry. It is time to make sure that the regulatory environment is right and that limited public money is invested effectively.