The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a global crisis. While the full scale of its consequences is hard to predict, it is already clear that recovery efforts will entail massive government action. It is also becoming clear that ‘the largest economic shock of our lifetime’ will be a defining moment for the energy transition and hydrogen as one of its key components.

Whether governments maintain an ambitious stance on climate action as part of their efforts to build a more resilient post-Covid-19 world or dilute (or even abandon) their pre-crisis plans in favour of other priorities, will decide the fate of our energy system for at least a generation.

The good news is that the industry – with the Hydrogen Council as its global voice – stands ready to pull together to demonstrate a powerful vision and decisive action for a better energy future powered by hydrogen. With a newly elected Board composed of Air Liquide, Anglo American, China Energy, Cummins, ENGIE, Faurecia, Hyundai Motor Group, Johnson Matthey, Royal Dutch Shell, Sinopec, Linde, Total and Toyota – represented at the highest level by their global CEOs – the Hydrogen Council is committed to providing the bold leadership needed to navigate through the Covid-19 crisis and deliver its part of the solution.

This group remains 100% committed to our shared vision that the clean energy transformation won’t be possible without hydrogen and we are encouraged to see this view being time and time again backed by some of the world’s most renowned experts. For example, the latest outlook from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) released at the end of March 2020 demonstrates that use of clean hydrogen can help address the toughest third of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Scaling up hydrogen solutions would also provide a significant economic contribution, including $2.5 trillion in annual sales of hydrogen and equipment and 30 million new jobs created to help support post-crisis recovery.