Hydrogen is required in huge amounts to help Germany’s numerous sectors decarbonize. Even still, separating water into hydrogen and oxygen necessitates enormous quantities of renewable energy.
As a result, “green hydrogen imports” will be required, as local demand significantly outnumbers supply, according to Green Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck.
Meanwhile, during the Davos Economic Forum, Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised profitable hydrogen commerce, while Foreign Minister Analena Burbock pressed on hydrogen diplomacy during a visit to Kiev, which was received with skepticism.
Germany’s hydrogen diplomacy appears to be contentious. While Burbock spoke of “deeper collaboration on energy in Russia, especially in terms of sustainability,” Habek spoke of a perilous international scenario that rivaled the Cold War’s severity.
The development of hydrogen diplomacy offices in Moscow, Riyadh, Luanda, Abuja, and, shortly, Kiev, is similar to Germany’s strategy. The Berlin Ministry of Foreign Affairs validated this information.
The German Agency for Development Cooperation manages these offices, which serve two functions.
According to the ministry, Germany is “extremely keen in seeing additional green hydrogen production facilities arise overseas to suit our future import demands.”
The goal is also to “guarantee that present fossil fuel exporters modify their business model early enough to avoid future economic distortions and possibly security issues.”
Hydrogen as a commodity for export
According to Scholz, emerging and developing nations’ hydrogen manufacturing capability must be a climate-neutral export. Scholz aims to “organize green hydrogen investments worldwide to achieve a secure global supply” through his Climate Club.
“The reciprocal benefits are evident – for a nation like Germany with a strong industrial base and heavy energy consumption, as well as for those who would become big producers of green hydrogen, particularly rising and developing countries,” stated the Davos chancellor on January 19.
This component of German hydrogen diplomacy may be observed at the German offices in Luanda, Angola’s capital, and Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. Green hydrogen might be a valuable export for nations with strong renewable energy potential, plenty of land, and few population concerns.
However, according to hydrogen specialist Eleonora Moreau of the E3G think tank, “it is crucial to take into account the influence that green hydrogen commerce might have on energy availability in partner nations.”
“There is a danger that projects may boost power prices in countries where access to energy is already a severe problem,” she warned, regardless of Germany’s hydrogen diplomacy.
Hydrogen as a stability guarantee
Germany has so far imported more than 60% of the energy it uses each year. The majority of the imports come from Russia and Norway, both of which consider Germany’s need for fossil fuels as a vital economic sector.
Germany, on the other hand, is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2045, which means it won’t be relying on natural gas until then. Gas production is projected to be phased out between 2035 and 2040, while consumption is expected to fall steadily.
RWE CEO Marcus Krebber stated, “We need Russian natural gas, and Russia needs foreign dollars.” For years, Germany and Russia have shared a “close interdependence.”
As a result, the route to German climate neutrality is fraught with difficulties for developing nations.
“Oil and gas-rich nations are at risk of upheaval if their income is lost,” warn economist Veronica Grimm and foreign policy specialist Kirsten Westphal.
Hydrogen will become the new standard for global energy exchange, and it will be as widely available as feasible. Experts from the National Hydrogen Council said that, in the end, “today’s oil and gas providers must also be able to benefit from the energy trade.”
In this way, Russia appears to be reorienting as well. “Projects on cooperation in the domains of healthcare, climate change, renewable energies, as well as hydrogen strategies and technologies were fully addressed,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a meeting with Burbock in mid-January.
