AltGen’s Fireside Chats: Green Hydrogen Policy & Legislation: Riding the Trail Blind
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For our second Fireside Chat, we will be discussing how policy and legislation (depending on how you use it) has the power to delay or propel green hydrogen projects. We will also be touching on the topic of regulatory frameworks for the necessary components of green hydrogen projects such as electrolysers.
We spoke to developers and project experts who, in collaboration with their partners, currently have green hydrogen projects underway.
AltGen’s Burning Questions
- What really is the biggest barrier facing Africa’s green hydrogen economy? (We touched on this question in our first Fireside Chat, click here to read more!)
- Realistically, how long will it take Africa to fully develop and begin producing green hydrogen?
- Will carbon taxes cause destructive delays in Africa’s green hydrogen transition, or will they propel them forward?
Continuing the conversation from our last article, our panellists include WKN Windcurrent’s Power-to-X Programme Manager, Akhil Woodraj, CEO of Chariot Green Hydrogen, Laurent Coche, Legal Business Development Manager at Yamna, Tom Dopstadt, and CEO at Ekonami, Olaf Marting.
Top challenges shortlisted by our Panelists
Today we’ll be tackling the second challenge…Policy and Legislation. This Fireside Chat is the second in a series of four on the feasibility of green hydrogen projects in South Africa.
- Communication
- Policy and Legislation
- Finding Skills at Scale
- Overload of Information
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Policy and Legislation: To regulate or deregulate? That is the question…
Much of Africa’s economy is reliant on an energy-intensive industry, most of which results in extremely high carbon emissions. The wealthiest companies involved in the energy and manufacturing industries fall amongst these high-carbon emitters, and without financial incentive or consequence, they are unlikely to transition to greener practices at the rate at which the world needs them to.
“It’s like that one friend you have that never wants to share the bill, they’re not going to pay unless prompted”
– Olaf Marting, CEO – Ekonami
1) Time to light the financial firecracker and let it fly
Without ample motivation, high-carbon emitters will likely drag their feet in the race to decarbonise. This is where government and policymakers must step in. For corporates to see the climate crisis as something that needs to be addressed today, and not in a decade, we must consider it a financial crisis, not solely an environmental crisis. Threaten the bottom line and people start to pay attention to the conversation.
“If there is no legislation, why would they change? The end consumer is much more inclined to absorb green energy measures…the issue is with the corporates. If banks refuse to fund or give loans to high carbon emitters, the pressure will force companies to come to the table, it’s all about the pressures in the background.”
– Olaf Marting, CEO – Ekonami
“People are people at the end of the day, they are not going to risk their income for the sake of carbon compliance unless it’s compulsory. South Africa must move away from a voluntary carbon market and implement a compliance carbon market along with the existing carbon tax incentives.”
2) Collaboration & cohesion for the sake of investment
“We recently delivered the feasibility study for our flagship Project Nour, which is a major milestone. As the technical work progresses, we will continue to support the government of Mauritania‘s efforts of putting in place the regulatory framework for green hydrogen. This will lay the ground for the next phase of the project, the conceptual study phase.”
“When planning and designing green hydrogen projects several assumptions are made in evaluating its financial viability. It is critical for project progression to have clear policies which enable sound evaluation of projects.”
3) Generate understanding, not just energy
“Giga-scale green hydrogen projects have the size and the potential to move the needle of countries’ GDPs – and societies at large. As this is still a relatively nascent industry, innovative and collaborative solutions are needed and partnerships across the industry will be key in successfully delivering these projects.”
“The problem of hydrogen is a wonderful example of the BANI (brittle, anxious, non-linear, and incomprehensible) world that we currently live in. We try to fix one part of the equation only to create another problem on the other side, and this requires very brave leadership and creative minds.”
“One major challenge in addressing this issue is its multijurisdictional nature, which complicates regulatory coordination. A uniform approach by all governments would be most effective. However, achieving such alignment is very complex and, thus, unlikely. This underlying complexity must be acknowledged in any discussion about governmental involvement.”
