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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether her Department plans to establish a Hydrogen cluster by the end of the next Parliament.

Low carbon hydrogen could play a vital role in meeting the UK’s net zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 2050, supporting both our Industrial Strategy and the revitalisation of the economies of the UK’s industrial areas.

Government is committed to exploring hydrogen’s potential through up to £108 million in innovation funding and £100 million to deploy low carbon hydrogen production capacity. The Government has also committed to invest £800 million to build the first fully deployed CCUS cluster by the mid-2020s and £500 million to help energy-intensive industries move to low-carbon techniques, which could include the use of hydrogen.

Hydrogen is likely to play an important role in achieving the Industrial Clusters Mission, creating the world’s first net zero industrial cluster by 2040 and at least one low carbon cluster by 2030. This is supported by up to £170 million from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to support the deployment of low carbon technologies and enabling infrastructure in one or more clusters.