UK’s green hydrogen ambitions fail to deliver

Twelve months ago, Kwasi Kwarteng, then the UK’s business secretary, stood on a site in the English city of Sheffield where stainless steel was manufactured until the 1990s and declared the government’s support for a “new British industry . . . that will thrive over the next decade and beyond”.Kwarteng — later appointed chancellor then sacked by UK prime minister Liz Truss before her own departure in October — was, at the time, referring to the production of hydrogen. He was visiting ITM Power, a London-listed company that makes electrolysis equipment in Sheffield to produce “green hydrogen” from water using renewable power.In recent years, countries and companies around the world have come to view green hydrogen as a critical tool in decarbonising some of the world’s most polluting industries, such as chemicals and refining.And, since the shock of…

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