Energy

141 Items

bus that runs on green hydrogen, framed by leaves

AP Photo/Anupam Nath

Report - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

India - The New Global Green Hydrogen Powerhouse?

| Mar. 26, 2024

India aims to become a leading producer of green hydrogen by the next decade as part of its broader industrial and decarbonization strategies. This brief provides an overview of India's current hydrogen strategy, as well as the challenges - land and water scarcity, infrastructure gaps, and financing gaps - that must be addressed in order for India to achieve its ambitious goals.

Aerial view of the Noor 3 solar power station which is nearing completion, near Ouarzazate, southern Morocco, Saturday, April. 1, 2017. The king unveiled one of the world's biggest solar plants, taking advantage of the Sahara sunshine and a growing global push for renewable energy.

(AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)

Analysis & Opinions - International Monetary Fund

North Africa's Hydrogen Mirage

| September 2023

Amid the global energy transition, investors are anxious to pour billions of dollars into many of these countries to turn the new fossil fuel finds into hydrogen. The element is the key feedstock for fuel cells, which use chemical reactions to generate electricity cleanly, with water as the main byproduct. Notwithstanding the considerable technological challenges ahead, demand for the gas in Europe and elsewhere is widely expected to surge as vehicles, factories, and other energy users seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

For Southern Rim nations, however, this tantalizing opportunity for economic development risks turning into just another Sahara mirage. That’s because the hype surrounding hydrogen may continue to distract the regions’ leaders from addressing the tough domestic social issues that are behind the migration crisis. If the technology does become viable, revenue from hydrogen exports to Europe could just perpetuate rent-seeking behavior by political and economic elites at the expense of their own citizens.

steel mill blast furnace

AP Photo/Martin Meissner

Policy Brief - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Green Hydrogen Industrial Value Chains: Geopolitical and Market Implications

| Feb. 09, 2023

Green hydrogen is likely to play a pivotal role in a carbon-free future, as its adoption will enable the decarbonization of energy-intensive industrial processes whose emissions are hard to abate through simple electrification—such as steel and cement production. However, to take advantage of the economic opportunities created by its adoption at scale, countries will need to rethink the roles they could play in a new energy landscape and define strategic industrial policies accordingly.

Panelists on stage during hydrogen discussion at Rome Med 2022

Rome MED – Mediterranean Dialogue

News - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Is Hydrogen Our Future?

On December 3, 2022, Nicola De Blasio, Senior Fellow with the Belfer Center’s Environment and Natural Resources Program (ENRP), chaired a panel discussion, “Is Hydrogen Our Future?,” at the Rome MED – Mediterranean Dialogue (Rome MED), an annual high-level conference on Mediterranean geopolitics. The panel discussion was part of ENRP’s Future of Hydrogen project’s ongoing engagement with global policymakers, who are increasingly viewing hydrogen as a solution to meeting their decarbonization and energy security goals. 

U.S. Steel Granite City Works facility

AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Two Views on Green Hydrogen: Possibilities and Challenges for a Carbon-Free Future

| Fall 2022

The Environment and Natural Resources Program’s Future of Hydrogen project published several papers this year investigating renewable hydrogen production, use, and trade between countries. In the following interview, Senior Fellow Nicola De Blasio and Research Fellow Laima Eicke share their insights on green hydrogen's growing economic and political momentum. 

teaser image

Journal Article - Energy Research & Social Science

Green Hydrogen Value Chains in the Industrial Sector—Geopolitical and Market Implications

| October 2022

The adoption of green hydrogen will be critical for decarbonizing industrial processes at scale, especially hard-to-abate ones such as steel and cement production. This paper maps the role countries could play in future green hydrogen industrial markets based on three criteria: resource endowment, existing industrial production, and economic relatedness.

U.S. Steel Granite City Works facility

AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

Report - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

The Future of Green Hydrogen Value Chains: Geopolitical and Market Implications in the Industrial Sector

| Oct. 05, 2022

This report studies the role countries could play in future green hydrogen industrial markets, focusing on three key applications: ammonia, methanol, and steel production. To elucidate the impact of the transition to a low-carbon economy on energy value chains, Eicke and De Blasio propose an analytical framework to cluster countries into five groups based on the variables of resource endowment, existing industrial production, and economic relatedness.

pipes

LoggaWiggler/Pixabay

Paper - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

MIGHTY: Model of International Green Hydrogen Trade

| Aug. 03, 2022

The Model of International Green Hydrogen Trade (MIGHTY) is an optimization model to investigate renewable hydrogen production, consumption, and trade between countries. MIGHTY supports strategic analysis by policymakers and investors about the potential roles that countries and regions will play in future renewable hydrogen markets. This paper introduces the model and describes the model formulation.

close up of gray metal chain

Aida L/Unsplash

Policy Brief - Italian Institute for International Political Studies

Technological Innovation and the Energy Value Chains in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy

| July 28, 2022

Recent events have highlighted how wars, pandemics, and even supply chain issues can quickly blunt existing efforts and policies to address climate change. The solution cannot lie in globalization, argue authors De Blasio and Zheng, but instead in a long-term systemic focus on clean technology innovation. The path ahead will require a collective understanding of how developing and deploying the needed clean technology innovation will affect value chains, markets, and geopolitics.

Hijacked airliner headed toward World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001

REUTERS/Sean Adair

Report - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Countering Terrorism With "Blue Sky" Thinking

| May 19, 2022

In the past, strategic surprise has often stemmed from a failure of imagination. Most intelligence failures are rooted in a lack of foresight or early warning of impending events. Blue sky thinking seeks to prevent these surprises by devoting more attention not just to known risks and likely scenarios, but also to low probability, high impact events. In an unprecedented step in forging ongoing global collaboration, 129 global experts gathered in Amman, Jordan, in December 2021. The conference was held under the auspices of Jordan’s Aqaba Process and facilitated by representatives from the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center’s Intelligence Project. Attendees included intelligence officers, diplomats, military officers, private sector practitioners, and academics representing 29 countries, 5 continents, and 68 government and private sector organizations. Through presentations and discussion under Chatham House Rules, the conference facilitated an open exchange of ideas on the possible next big threats from terrorism and on strategies for moving forward.