Green hydrogen cannot be scaled up fast enough to meet the coming demand for clean H 2, so large amounts of the “blue” variety ­— produced from methane with carbon capture and storage (CCS) — will be required, according to the head of one of the world’s leading CCS programmes.

It is simply “not realistic” to install renewable-energy projects and electrolysers at the speed needed to produce the volumes of clean hydrogen to help decarbonize the planet’s power, heat, transport and heavy-industry sectors, says Steinar Eikaas, vice-president for low-carbon solutions at Norwegian energy giant Equinor, which has been capturing and storing CO2 at scale since 1996.