Hydrogen made from electrolysis of water powered by solar or wind could help humans survive beyond the 21st century. The elemental gas could store surplus renewables power for resolution of grid demand variances and hydrogen could decarbonize sectors such as long-distance air and road transport and manufacturing processes for steel, concrete and other carbon-intensive products.

Hydrogen should have an important role but international agency Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung proposes that a revised policy framework is needed to free decarbonization options from the imperatives of private profit. It argues:

…policies that have been pursued over the past two decades or so in an attempt to “incentivize” the wider energy transition have resoundingly failed to do so, leading not to an energy transition, but rather an energy expansion, in which the use of essentially all forms of energy continues to rise.

Of course, decision making by politicians and public institutions can fail. In 2017, BC NDP promised a well conceived program but quickly dropped it after forming government. The plan offered clear benefits to British Columbia but was opposed by self-interested unions. Work to retrofit buildings would proceed in every community across the province instead of at large-scale worksites where labour organizations exercise control.

PowerBC involved:

• Energy efficiency retrofits to public buildings,
• Energy efficiency retrofits in industrial and commercial buildings and private homes,
• Upgrading of BC Hydro infrastructure with low-cost projects like Revelstoke Dam Unit 6 and by renewing outdated turbines and transformers,
• Development of wind, solar, battery technology, and other renewable energy sources.

Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung provides a comprehensive examination of hydrogen as a potential energy solution. Excerpts:

It can be used to produce electricity chemically through fuel cells, which can power vehicles or be fed into electrical grids. It can also be used as a fuel for heat or to drive gas turbines, or can be converted into ammonia or other fuels. Hydrogen has an energy density triple that of gasoline or diesel, and over a hundred times that of current lithium-ion batteries.

This makes hydrogen far more suitable for use in larger, heavier vehicles and for longer distances, where the additional weight of batteries required to provide adequate range or power would be prohibitive. It can be pumped as quickly as gasoline or diesel, allowing for refueling much more quickly than electric batteries can be “recharged.”

Hydrogen burns at a temperature comparable to that of “natural gas,” making it a potentially vital source of heat for heating or industrial uses. Perhaps most importantly, in principle hydrogen can be produced from “carbon-free” sources and used as a fuel in ways that produce only water as “waste.”

One key point of debate is whether “blue” hydrogen (produced from fossil fuels, with the resulting emissions “captured” and thus prevented from being released to the atmosphere) can play a significant role as a “bridge” technology toward full decarbonization.

Transition must be consistent with the social, ecological and other goals Achieving that broader but essential set of aims will also require robust democratic accountability that can keep the risk of any state-led “extractivist” expansion of energy exploitation and use in check.

British Columbia is committed to promoting production and utilization of hydrogen. However, the government’s primary aim is to encourage blue hydrogen made from natural gas. To excuse continuing subsidies to the gas extraction industry, BC falsely claims blue hydrogen is acceptable because the province has “expertise in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.”

Of course, that is just another lie from a government that uses disinformation and deception as common political tools.

In fact, carbon capture and storage is a complex and expensive process. Many projects initiated years ago have been abandoned as too expensive or too technically difficult. As a result, private industry will not carry the financial burden of CCS.

As when environmental cleanup is needed after fossil fuel sites become disused, producers expect the public to pay for decarbonization. Politicians like those in the parties of John Horgan and Kevin Falcon have demonstrated willingness to subsidize fossil fuel producers with billions of dollars. Government may end discredited reward programs like the one for Deep Well Royalty Reductions but that money will be doled out in new ways.

Little progress will be made in addressing the climate crisis in Canada until political leaders remove themselves from the grasp of industries that rank profit above human survival.