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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to support decarbonisation pathways; what estimate he has made of the potential extent of hydrogen replacement of natural gas in the next ten years; and what assessment he has made of the potential role of hydrogen alternatives in supporting job (a) creation and (b) investment in the North West.

The UK has set a benchmark by legislating for net zero, and the adoption of hydrogen as a decarbonised energy carrier will support us in achieving this legally binding target. We will set out our approach to growing the UK hydrogen economy our Hydrogen Strategy, set to be published early next year.

I have been very pleased to see the ambitious plans for hydrogen in the North West, such as the HyNet project, which we are supporting with over £13m funding through our innovation programme. I have talked directly to companies in the North West about how they can support growth of the hydrogen economy, and my officials are in regular discussions with stakeholders in the region.

In November 2019 we published the Energy Innovation Needs Assessment (EINA) for hydrogen and fuel cells. This identified that the future market for all hydrogen technologies could yield around £5.3bn of GVA and create nearly 50,000 jobs by 2050 to meet demand in export and domestic markets. The North West is ideally placed to capture such opportunities.