The European Hydrogen Sustainability and Circularity Panel (EHS&CP) has been launched to support the Clean Hydrogen Partnership in strengthening sustainability and circularity across Europe’s hydrogen value chain. As hydrogen technologies become increasingly important for Europe’s transition towards a climate-neutral economy, ensuring that they are designed, deployed and managed in a sustainable and circular way is essential.
Hydrogen has a key role to play in enabling emission-free transport, heating and industrial processes, as well as inter-seasonal energy storage. But growth alone is not enough. To support a resilient clean hydrogen economy, the full life cycle of hydrogen technologies must be taken into account, from design and material use to end-of-life management, recycling and broader social impacts.
Launched by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, the Panel has a twofold mission:
- Help integrate sustainability and circularity at both programme and project level, and
- Promote knowledge-sharing that can foster a stronger culture of sustainability and circularity beyond the programme.
What the Panel will do
The Panel will provide independent, evidence-based support to the Clean Hydrogen Partnership by monitoring, analysing and reporting on the sustainability and circularity performance of funded projects and of the wider programme. It will also help define approaches for integrating these aspects more systematically into future projects, while sharing recommendations and lessons learned.
Its work will cover a broad range of topics across the hydrogen value chain, including eco-design, circularity, resource efficiency, critical raw materials, end-of-life management and recycling, hydrogen end-use applications and systems integration, techno-economic assessment and cost modelling, as well as social sustainability, social life cycle assessment, social acceptance and governance.
A panel of experts from across Europe
Comprising 16 experts from across Europe, the European Hydrogen Sustainability and Circularity Panel brings together a wide range of expertise to support a holistic approach to hydrogen innovation. Following a call for experts and selection process, members have been appointed to contribute their knowledge across four task forces:
- Environmental LCA
- Techno-economic LCC
- Social sustainability and acceptance
- Criticality and Circularity
This structure enables the Panel to address sustainability and circularity challenges across the hydrogen value chain in a coordinated and practical way. See here its members.
Supporting Europe’s clean hydrogen transition
By combining expert insight, evidence-based analysis and knowledge-sharing, the European Hydrogen Sustainability and Circularity Panel will help ensure that Europe’s hydrogen ambitions are matched by strong sustainability and circularity principles. In doing so, it can contribute to building a more resilient, responsible and future-ready hydrogen ecosystem across Europe.
Contact
For questions about the European Hydrogen Sustainability and Circularity Panel and its initiatives, please contact us at EHSCP
clean-hydrogen [dot] europa [dot] eu (EHSCP[at]clean-hydrogen[dot]europa[dot]eu)