H E Dr. Cristian Tudor, EU Ambassador in Kuwait and Qatar
Doha: European Union strongly supports complete exchange and cooperation in initiatives with Qatari stakeholders in the field of renewable and clean energy, said H E Dr. Cristian Tudor, EU Ambassador in Kuwait and Qatar. Addressing a webinar yesterday, he said role of hydrogen as a clean fuel has been growing and with lowering cost of solar and wind power, hydrogen is becoming a big game-changer in the green energy.
The webinar was organised by the European Union Delegation to State of Kuwait and the State of Qatar, the EU-GCC Clean Energy Technology Network, and the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF). The webinar titled ‘Hydrogen, the energy carrier of the future’, featured high level participation of Dr. Abdul Sattar Al Taie, Executive Director, QNRF and Frank Wouters, Director, EU GCC Clean Energy Technology Network.
Speaking during the webinar, Dr. Cristian Tudor said, “To support cooperation with Qatar and the GCC on clean energy the EU mobilizes flexible mechanism, the EU-GCC clean energy technology network is one of the most notable of them. This network was created in 2010, which is funded by the EU and has already carried out important activities in Qatar in cooperation with the Qatari authorities and research institutes,” he added.
The ambassador said, “We strongly support complete exchange and cooperation in initiatives with Qatari stakeholders in the field of renewables and clean energy. Cooperation as well as sharing of know-how and expertise are important for the EU to meet mutual sustainability and energy transition goals. We have come to hydrogen, we are not just looking at new energy carrier, but we are also looking at the beginning of the revolution in the energy system, moreover Europe is leading that revolution.”
As a regional leader in clean energy, the GCC is ideally positioned to capitalize on a rapidly expanding low-carbon hydrogen export market worldwide, which, according to the hydrogen council, can reach a value of $2.7 trillion by 2050.
Dr. Cristian Tudor said, “Bilateral relations between the EU and Qatar have been gaining momentum over the last years. In 2018 during the visit of H H the Amir to Brussels, the European Union External Action Service and the Qatari Foreign Ministry signed a cooperation arrangement aimed at strengthening both political dialogue and sectoral cooperation. The same year both sides launched EU-Qatar informal Human Rights dialogue.
“In 2019, Qatar became the first Gulf country to finish negotiations of aviation with the European Union. Throughout 2020, the EU and Qatar joined forces to fight the negative effects of COVID-19”. He highlighted that Qatari assistance in repatriation of EU citizens back to Europe during the first wave of the pandemic will not be forgotten.
He added “With the European green deal, we have a clear direction with respect to our energy system in transforming our economy, the goal is to reach 55 percent in emissions by 2030 and carbon neutral by 2050. Meanwhile, we are finding our way out of the COVID-19 crisis, given the highest ever EU budget to support recovery we have a historic opportunity for green investments, renewables is a key part of that to become climate neutral by 2050.”
He said that when it comes to the clean energy hydrogen race Europe is leading the way, the EU is an industrial leader in electrolyzer development, this reflects current demand in hydrogen based applications in sectors which are considered difficult to decarbonize.”
“The Gulf is one of the region with favourable conditions to produce cost effective hydrogen with excellent solar and wind resources and abundant expertise in industrial gases. The Gulf is ideally positioned to capitalize on rapidly expanding low-carbon hydrogen export market worldwide. We have already seen noteworthy blue and green hydrogen projects and strategies developing in the region,” he added.
The ambassador noted, “At this stage I see a great potential in for sharing practices, policies and developing a global rules-based market including common standards of safety. The GCC countries including Qatar have already engaged in number of research and development projects including feasibility studies and pilot projects for blue and green hydrogen for different uses. We believe there is a need to allocate more investments to strengthen the technical expertise and create an infrastructure network and improve expert business models.”
The research outcome seminar provided an opportunity to exchange ideas and consider concrete options to move the hydrogen agenda forward in Qatar and the whole GCC and EU regions. It helped to identify innovative and replicable practices and models to facilitate the development and implementation of renewable hydrogen projects to initiate joint initiatives.
The emergence of hydrogen as potential high value proposition in a carbon free economy has been observant in number of projects around the world. For example, Australia with partnership with Japan invested $50m in the first world hydrogen supply chain project, Northern Netherlands region already won a $20m EU grant in 2019 to become Europe’s green hydrogen project, and Canada recently launched a hydrogen strategy with Federal Investment of over $1bn and in Germany hydrogen powered trains are already operating.
As from the energy side several large companies are considering plans to use hydrogen pipelines similar to LNG transportation. Governments around the world are realizing that hydrogen will play an indispensable role. Hydrogen is a versatile and climate neutral energy carrier that can be used to drive down the gas emissions in sectors that are otherwise difficult to decarbonize.
