More About H2-diplo
H2-diplo is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office and is financed by the International Climate Initiative (Internationale Klimaschutzinitiative, IKI). It supports the German federal government’s energy and climate foreign policy, working together with partner countries on ways of using green hydrogen to decarbonise and diversify their economies.
Please find out more about the project:
Energy policy plays a key role in ensuring compliance with international climate goals. With the help of its energy and climate foreign policy, the Federal Foreign Office makes an important contribution to climate protection and the security of energy supply. Global challenges cannot be solved single-handedly: climate protection, energy security and poverty reduction can only be addressed jointly at an international level.
Green hydrogen can contribute to overcoming these challenges by reaching decarbonisation targets, securing new energy sources and offering economic opportunities to prospective producing countries. At the same time, the global hydrogen market ramp-up and the general strive for climate neutrality is increasingly shifting competitive advantages and balances of power. Access to raw materials and technologies as well as the use of green energy sources and the manufacture of green-energy products have long been recognised as a geopolitical location advantage in a climate-neutral global economy. The Federal Government is therefore strengthening its diplomatic relations and cooperation with many partner countries through energy and climate partnerships.
In line with the German National Hydrogen Strategy from 2020 and its update from 2023, “Decarbonization Diplomacy” (in short “H2-diplo”) operates within this thematic spectrum.
It links the efforts to achieve global decarbonisation and energy transition to diplomatic strategies while considering geopolitical aspects of global change processes.
Therefore, H2-diplo aims to expand the climate and energy foreign policy dialogue with selected partner countries in order to
- support decarbonisation in partner countries before the window for the 1.5°C target for significant GHG reductions closes,
- develop with partner countries economic prospects for the transition to climate neutrality,
- enable regional discourse and exchange about the opportunities and challenges of green hydrogen.
It is time for the world at long last to ditch the ballast of fossil fuels in order to unleash the economic potential of renewables.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue 2024
To limit global warming to 1.5°C, a comprehensive and immediate raise of climate ambitions and a reduction in GHG emissions is required worldwide. With a share of 75% of the global GHG emissions, caused by power and heat generation, industrial processes and fuel combustion in transport, the energy sector plays a key role in reaching this target. To achieve climate neutrality by the middle of the century, rapid decarbonisation must be enabled through massive expansion of renewable energies (RE), energy efficiency and electrification as well as the production of green hydrogen (H2).
Green hydrogen, produced from renewable sources, not only climate-friendly, but also flexible to use and easy to transport. As renewable electricity is not easy to store, surpluses can be used to produce hydrogen to make it suitable for storage. In the future, green hydrogen and its derivatives can also play a key role especially in those sectors that are difficult to decarbonise (hard-to-abate sectors), such as the chemical, steel, aluminium and cement industries, as well as in heavy-duty transport. Thus, green hydrogen will play a key role in enhancing and completing the energy transition.
In order to develop this emission reduction potential, more and more countries are focusing on expanding CO2-neutral hydrogen production capacities and new areas of application for the derivatives in industry and transport. In particular, countries with great renewable energy potential are coming to the fore as hydrogen producers that could meet future international demands, especially from the EU and East Asia. Countries with high potential for wind and solar energy can succeed in establishing domestic hydrogen value chains without having to rely on large imports. This green industrialisation contributes to sustainable development and economic resilience. For countries that are currently dependent on the export of fossil fuels, the production of green hydrogen also has great potential to sustainably transform their energy industries while continuing their export-oriented economic model. These countries can rely on existing infrastructure and become important players in building a global value chain for green hydrogen.
Through creating a link between hydrogen and long-term emissions reduction strategies, e.g. “Nationally Determined Contributions” (NDC), it is possible to ensure that hydrogen actually contributes to decarbonisation while also considering the potential for diversifying economies.
On behalf of the Federal Foreign Office, H2-diplo is working together with partner countries on how to use green hydrogen for decarbonisation and to diversify their economies. The project also underlines the Federal Government’s ambitions for a Just Transition, a Feminist Foreign Policy, and Climate Foreign Policy.
Climate foreign policy thrives on global dialogue and exchange. Climate cooperation, even and particularly with partners that do not share all our values, can often form part of a positive agenda and build bridges. This engagement creates opportunities for us to intensify our relations with states, also on issues beyond climate, and thus strengthen our global partnerships as a whole.
Strategy on Climate Foreign Policy of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany (2023)
Hydrogen diplomacy offices
The core of the project are the H2-diplo offices in our partner countries. Since 2021, these have been opened in Angola, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine, followed by Kazakhstan in 2023. In 2024, Kenya and Colombia will join as partner countries with their own hydrogen diplomacy offices in Nairobi and Bogotá. The offices work closely with the respective partner ministries and other stakeholders, including the local German embassies and representatives from civil society and science. Since their establishment, the offices have been supporting partner countries especially in analysing the sustainable transformation of export structures and their trade policy relationships, and have assisted with the implementation of a dialogue on geopolitical and foreign policy aspects of the topic of hydrogen. A special focus will now lie on the development of climate-neutral value chains and the linking of hydrogen strategies with decarbonisation strategies in our partner countries.
The cooperative approach to transforming the global energy system also contributes to maintaining peace and security.
Global Team
Situated in Germany, the Global Team supports German embassies worldwide in their work on hydrogen and its potential for decarbonisation and diversification together with the partner countries. The team provides input to related discussions, e.g. by organising various event formats and conducting studies and political analyses.
