Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla has taken part in a roundtable held as part of the COP28 summit tackling hydrogen in attendance of several decision-makers and international leaders in the energy industry.

During his speech, El Molla introduced Egypt’s efforts in localizing the hydrogen production industry as one of the country’s progress pillars in adopting clean and renewable energy resources in accordance with its sustainable development vision for 2030.

He pointed out that Egypt is working on establishing infrastructure for hydrogen production locally which will contribute to attracting more global investments, especially having a unique geographical location and this will support Egypt’s opportunities to become an important supplier of hydrogen to the world.

He added that Egypt has developed the Low Carbon Hydrogen National Strategy to benefit from the advantages of competitiveness and targets a share of up to 8% of the global tradable hydrogen market by 2040.

The minister also noted the establishment of the National Council for Green Hydrogen and its Derivatives recently, which comes within the framework of the Egyptian government’s vision to work through a unified platform to coordinate and promote green hydrogen and its derivatives projects, reflecting the commitment of the country and the government as a whole to attract private sector investments, which represent great importance at this early stage of market growth.

El Molla concluded his speech by affirming that Egypt will continue its cooperation and partnership with the various industry parties to benefit from international support to launch its capabilities in the hydrogen field which help in contributing to the clean energy demand locally and globally.

Additionally, the roundtable witnessed the launch of a number of major initiatives aimed at accelerating the pace of hydrogen project implementation, facilitating the transition to net zero emissions, and maximizing the climate, social and economic benefits of cross-border supply chains.

According to the statement of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, the most important of these initiatives are the declaration of intent (DoI) regarding mutual recognition of certification systems for hydrogen and its derivatives, and the launch of the ISO methodology for evaluating greenhouse gas emissions from hydrogen, and the inaugural Public-Private Action Statement on Cross-Border Trade from the International Hydrogen Trade Forum.

The role of hydrogen as an energy source with great environmental returns was emphasized during the roundtable, as it can contribute to reducing 60 to 80 gigatons of carbon dioxide by 2050, and it also plays a pivotal role in removing carbon from global economies.