Green hydrogen plays an increasingly important role as an energy carrier for a global energy transition, offering enormous opportunities both for the decarbonization of Germany and for the socio-economic development of partner countries of German development cooperation. In addition to the development of domestic production, the import of green hydrogen will play an important role in Germany. For these imports, sustainability criteria in particular must be defined and taken into account in addition to economic criteria.

In this context, the study conducted by eclareon on behalf of GIZ pursued the goal of examining existing potential studies for green hydrogen with regard to the consideration of potential criteria relevant to development policy. At the same time, an indicator system for developmental sustainability criteria was developed and its suitability for the evaluation of country potentials for the development of a hydrogen economy was assessed. The indicators were applied as examples to four partner countries of German international cooperation that are already implementing activities in the field of green hydrogen. These countries are Brazil, Chile, Morocco and South Africa.

The study can be downloaded in German here.