The World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) organized a webinar for its member IPAs on the crucial theme of “Financing Green Hydrogen Projects” on 30thJanuary 2023. The webinar was the first of many events to be organized by WAIPA exclusively for its members via its Members Portal.
As several countries have started to include Hydrogen projects as part of their national renewable energy plan, the webinar was a timely effort in sharing best practices for attracting capital toward these projects. Furthermore, the challenge in attracting requisite investment and capital towards renewable energy, particularly hydrogen, has only intensified following the pandemic and global economic downturn.
Mr. Ismail Erashin, Executive Director (a.i), WAIPA stressed the importance of green hydrogen and the need for IPAs to act swiftly in this regard. The session elaborating on the potential of green hydrogen and strategies for prioritizing it for the IPAsincluded comprehensive information on other key facets such as financial institutes as well as public-private partnerships for hydrogen projects.
Mr. Mayank Sinha, Standard Charter (SC), Singapore highlighted his company’s standpoint and current projects regarding one of its core themes for Clean Technology Footprint: hydrogen. SC regards hydrogen as a key driver for decarbonization and estimates its demand to increase significantly in the long run, potentially around 8 times the current capacity in the next 30 years. The Bank further regards the overall dissemination of hydrogen projects to be possible with the reduction of its existing commercial risks.
Ms. Petra Schwager, Chief, Climate and Technology Partnerships Division, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), elaborated on the strategic partnership between government and industry for advancing the prevalence of hydrogen. UNIDO’s efforts in providing technical support to countries for stimulating green hydrogen projects via capacity building were highlighted. Additionally, participants were informed about other international frameworks devised by organizations such as ISO, World Bank among others particularly for green hydrogen. IPAs were advised to participate actively in these frameworks and benefit from the existing standardized resource base.
Furthermore, by a detailed presentation on the Namibia Investment Promotion Development Board (NIPDB) work for green hydrogen projects, Ms. Nangula Nelulu Uaandja, CEO, NIPDB provided concrete takeaway points for attending IPAs to establish and/or enhance their operations in the green hydrogen sector.
The member IPAs that have yet not registered on the WAIPA Members Portal can do so at the earliest to avail access to upcoming activities. For more information: https://waipa.org/portal/
