The Future of our Fuel
The UK Government officially showed its stance on the emerging clean fuel, Hydrogen, with the release of the State of the Hydrogen Nation Report in Westminster in January 2026, where I was present as a researcher of Renewable Energy at the University of Strathclyde. What is hydrogen? It’ll no doubt bring back memories of high school chemistry and complicated physics. But there is nothing complex about this powerful fuel’s viability in our cars, our heating and our homes. Furthermore, burning hydrogen primarily yields power and water, with residual emissions minimal and manageable, making it a promising green fuel. This new type of energy is crucial to our transport and power demands while holding us to our climate commitments.
Joining industry leaders, MPs and academics, we discussed the report’s findings on the world leading level of investment; how the UK is ready to deliver important hydrogen infrastructure, skills and products. Leader of the Hydrogen Energy Association Dr Emma Guthrie stressed the sector’s “commitment, capability and readiness to act” and emphasized parliamentarian’s roles to ensure concrete strategies involving the fuel are capitalised on. Speaking with the Minister for Energy Michael Shanks MP at the event, he doubled down on Guthrie’s comments and added that “this government will also take great care in promoting sustainable pathways in which hydrogen will be produced”. You see there are two main ways in which hydrogen can be produced, one is by splitting your water, H2O in half, the other by breaking down natural gas in any gas power station and capturing any carbon dioxide produced. The issue with the former is that these hydrogen technologies lack the massive scale production that gas produced hydrogen could currently supply. However, the carbon capture technologies used in these gas plants lack effectiveness, the most developed of them capturing less than half of emissions, the Shell Quest site in Canada. The question boils down to if this Labour government will take the easy route and continue our reliance on carbon heavy natural gas, or back the UKs’ talented researchers and their ability to innovate the green technology of the future.
The State of the Hydrogen Nation Report showed above all else, that money is there to invest, the jobs will flood in with it, but the direction that will shape our country’s net zero future is hidden in ambiguity.
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