Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what comparative assessment he has made of the level of funding for hydrogen strategy in the (a) UK and (b) EU; and will he make a statement.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution will mobilise £12 billion of government investment to unlock three times as much private sector investment by 2030.

The 10 Point Plan sets out Government’s commitment to growing a new low carbon hydrogen economy for the UK. We are closely monitoring international hydrogen developments, including in the EU, where a number of countries announced high level hydrogen strategies and headline investment figures during 2020.

In the UK our focus is on working with industry to develop a supportive policy framework that will ensure we meet our aim of 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030, and secure economic benefit from the global growth in low carbon hydrogen.

We have already announced £240m funding for the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund, made hydrogen a priority in our £1bn Net Zero Innovation Programme and later this year will bring forward further details on hydrogen business models and the revenue mechanism to stimulate private investment in new low carbon hydrogen production facilities. Further detail will be set out in the forthcoming UK Hydrogen Strategy.