Hydrogen is receiving renewed attention as a route for supporting energy security, food system resilience, industrial growth and deep decarbonisation, according to a report from the Hydrogen Council, a global CEO-led initiative with a vision for long-term ambition for hydrogen to foster the clean energy transition.
The Hydrogen Council’s Global Hydrogen Compass 2026 report indicates that committed investment for clean hydrogen projects has passed $130 billion. This equates to 6.9 million tpa of committed capacity across 570 projects worldwide. It said 90% of this capacity is under construction or is operational.
“Clean hydrogen is no longer a future bet, it being built now,” the report says. “Over the past year, global operational capacity has nearly doubled and is expected to double again next year as projects under construction come online.” The report uses "clean hydrogen" to refer to renewable hydrogen; produced from renewable energy sources via water electrolysis, and low-carbon hydrogen; produced with low-emissions technologies.
The Global Hydrogen Compass 2026, co-authored with McKinsey & Company, is based on the perspectives of 70 global CEOs and highlights continued industry progress. The report says that 64% of CEOs indicated that recent energy shocks accelerated the interest in hydrogen. This shift is seen particularly in the heavily energy-import dependent regions such as India, Europe and East Asia, where hydrogen is seen as a necessary pathway to long-term energy diversification and self-reliance, the report adds.
Energy security and resilience, according to 74% of the CEOs interviewed, is set to become an even more prominent motivating factor for clean hydrogen adoption by 2030, the report says. “Hydrogen, when deployed under the right conditions, can play a complementary role alongside electrification and other technologies, eg batteries, biofuels, in addressing these challenges,” the report says.
While the overall picture for clean hydrogen is one of growth, the Clean Hydrogen Compass 2026 indicates a geographical split with some Asian countries running ahead and some Western geographies struggling to translate ambition into execution.
“CEOs observe that regions with assertive state-backed demand signals, namely China’s rapid build-out and India’s domestic security drive, are leaving other countries and regions behind, with over 90% of respondents indicating that they see either steady or accelerating momentum in these two economies.”
Europe emerges as the second largest region by committed investment, but leads in overall project count. Investment in clean hydrogen grew by 35% in the region. Meanwhile the US leads in low-carbon hydrogen deployment, accounting for 75% of the world’s low-carbon capacity. “Demand for clean hydrogen is emerging where it is supported by the right combination of enacted energy policies and underlying demand,” the report says.
With clean hydrogen project pipelines maturing, the report warns that deployment is not a plug-and-play exercise. “Developers stress that for many end-uses, hydrogen requires an entirely new multi-layered physical value chain, including supply, storage, transport and demand all in unison […] Deployment of clean hydrogen in existing use cases, like refining, and ammonia can utilise some of the existing infrastructure, but still requires several changes to existing value chains.”
With industry leaders committed to building a global clean hydrogen industry, they are calling on investors and policy makers to “adopt the strategic plans and practical measures needed to deliver industrial-scale ecosystems rather than expecting the plug-and-play immediacy of the power sector.”
Further reading:
- Green hydrogen: The path ahead
- Green hydrogen-based fertiliser project gets new funding
- Green hydrogen made with offshore wind to help reduce refinery emissions
- Green hydrogen: 11 projects get big funding boost
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