Macroeconomic Factors Influencing Public Policy Strategies for Blue and Green Hydrogen

Roberto Fazioli,Francesca Pantaleone

doi:10.3390/en14237938

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the factors affecting hydrogen and Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies (“CCS”) policies, taking into consideration Fossil Fuel Consumption, Oil Reserves, the Debt/GDP Ratio, the Trilemma Index and other variables with respect to OECD countries. STATA 17 was used for the analysis. The results confirm the hypothesis that countries with high fossil fuel consumption and oil reserves are investing in blue hydrogen and CCS towards a “zero-carbon-emission” perspective. Moreover, countries with a good Debt/GDP ratio act most favorably to green policies by raising their Public Debt, because Foreign Direct Investments are negatively correlated with those kinds of policies. Future research should exploit Green Finance policy decision criteria on green and blue hydrogen.

Highlights

The aim of this paper is to analyze the factors influencing blue and green hydrogen investments in Europe
Crossing the indications of the results outlined above, it emerges that the priority expansion of investments in the development sectors of the hydrogen industrial chain tend to be more likely to occur where there are no substantial public budget constraints, in the sense that the degrees of public spending freedoms are greater and more likely to expand, and where a relatively low level of oil reserves is observed
We analyzed the relationship between the applied hydrogen strategies at the national level and, green and blue hydrogen and Capture and Storage Technologies (CCS), through some key variables which help to explain the differences between hypothetical blue or green hydrogen strategies

Summary

Introduction

The aim of this paper is to analyze the factors influencing blue and green hydrogen investments in Europe. Several factors have led to growing interest in a hydrogen energy economy, especially for transportation and the need to store renewable electricity supplies [2]. Very few empirical works have been developed to address the crucial question of “how” to spread the use of hydrogen, or “how to get it”. The academic and political debate has already assumed the need for the use of hydrogen, but still unclear and unambiguous are the positions regarding the types of hydrogen production process that must be perpetuated and implemented for the so called “sustainable energy transition” [3]. Policy plays a key role in the promotion of different paths of energy sources exploitation, and much research has been conducted to assess its effects on renewable energy innovation [3,4]

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