The hydrogen rush: A multi-level multi-actor endeavour?

Designed as an empirical inventory, the paper aims to give first insights into the mediation of interests in the formulation and implementation of hydrogen strategies on different levels in vertical and horizontal dimensions (EU and Federal Republic of Germany – national and sub-national). Recently, the EU and several member states, as well as some sub-national entities, have published their respective hydrogen strategy papers: Government Strategy on Hydrogen (Netherlands, April 2020), Bayerische Wasserstoffstrategie (May 2020), Die Nationale Wasserstoffstrategie (Germany; June 2020), A Hydrogen Strategy for a climate-neutral Europe (EU; July 2020), Stratégie Nationale pour le développement de l’hydrogène décarboné en France (France; September 2020), etc. However, in the European Union, hydrogen as a “political element”, to use the wording of the panel description, presents itself as a complex system of actors (interests), institutions, and instruments which stretches from the subnational and national level to the trans-national, EU and international level. Using Germany as a starting point, the paper analyses (as a first element/building block of a wider research project) which actors or stakeholders are present/active in the hydrogen field, focusing on the institutions and instruments developed to promote hydrogen as a solution to combat climate change but also as a (new) industrial sector: - Are there (relevant) differences in the composition of the type of actors active in the field of hydrogen according to levels? - And if so, does this imply only different or even conflictual targets? - Do we find the systematic absence of specific actors/interests? - Where and how do the levels interlock regarding institutions, instruments, and actors? The mapping of institutions and instruments and the identification of actors is intended to help us to determine deficiencies in the “hydrogen rush”, offering valuable data for the further analyses of hydrogen as a “political element” based on informed hypotheses.