Germany plans additional €550 million for green hydrogen cooperation

The German government is setting up two new funds with a total of 550 million euros to support the development of the global hydrogen economy through cooperation, especially with emerging and developing countries. The development ministry will make available 250 million euros for the PtX Development Fund, which will promote hydrogen investments in these countries. Additionally, the economy ministry is setting up the PtX Growth Fund with 300 million euros. This will support companies in Germany and is intended to accelerate the global market ramp-up and infrastructure for green hydrogen as a whole. The funds will promote projects along the entire value chain that will be administered by the state-owned development bank KfW.

Green hydrogen could become a “beacon of hope” for a future climate-friendly economy not only in developed countries, said development minister Svenja Schulze. Many developing countries have great potential for wind and solar power and thus offer the best conditions for green hydrogen production, she said at a press conference at the COP27 UN climate change conference. Still, there was a danger that they would be excluded from the value chains of the future, because subsidy programmes have so far mainly existed in rich countries. “The new green hydrogen economy must become more just than the old fossil economy,” said the minister.

The two new funds complement the government’s existing multi-billion euro support concept, which includes an auction scheme for green hydrogen imports – H2 Global. In the fight against climate change, hydrogen made with renewable electricity is increasingly seen as a silver bullet for sectors with particularly stubborn emissions, such as heavy industry and aviation.