Green power is losing the battle to clean up hydrogen

IN THE race to clean up industry, clean energy is slipping behind fossil fuels.

That’s because we’ve pinned a lot of hopes on the prospects of hydrogen. In theory, the universe’s most abundant element could be a sort of climate skeleton key, unlocking zero-emissions ways of producing fertiliser, steel, petrochemicals, and cement.

Such a shift would be profound. About a quarter of the world’s carbon pollution comes not from power stations or vehicles, but out of the smokestacks of industrial plants. If one process could decarbonise all those industries, we would have discovered a technology as transformational as solar power, wind farms and electric vehicles (EVs).