Producing, transporting and using hydrogen will require skills and experience already deeply embedded across the UK.

Hydrogen has the potential to create £14bn by 2030 in additional economic growth for the UK with the economic benefits spread across the country. Most of the UK’s current biggest hydrogen projects are located outside the south-east of England, especially in the north-east, the north-west, Scotland and Wales. These projects are bringing investment and creating new, highly skilled jobs across the country

The oil and gas industry, which has made a huge contribution to the UK for over sixty years, supports hundreds of thousands of jobs directly and indirectly through the supply chain.

The vast skills and experience accumulated in the sector will be vital for the future development of hydrogen in the UK. The hydrogen sector will give new life to pipelines currently used for natural gas, while existing gas networks can be repurposed to deliver hydrogen to homes and businesses. Hydrogen will sustain jobs and benefit from the collective experience of tens of thousands of engineers.

Developing hydrogen will create thousands of green jobs in new sectors. As we scale up hydrogen production, thousands of new opportunities will be created in electrolyser manufacturing and deployment.

Hydrogen will also be needed to decarbonise and sustain existing industries and jobs in a variety of sectors.

Having affordable, low carbon hydrogen will in turn enable new industries to develop, including the manufacture of hydrogen-powered aircraft and container ships. Hydrogen will also help to secure a low-emissions future for key industries such as steel.

And in the long term, cheap, low carbon hydrogen will enable entrepreneurs and innovators to experiment with other potential applications, creating economic growth and new jobs.