The Hydrogen Council announces key membership growth

Brussels, 07 September 2017 – The Hydrogen Council welcomes 11 new members to its global membership group of 24 companies.

It is with great pleasure that the Hydrogen Council today welcomes on board four new steering members Audi, Iwatani, Plastic Omnium and Statoil. Now taking the number of Steering Members to seventeen, this rapid growth clearly demonstrates the recognition of the Council as having a leading role to play in helping shape the energy mix of the future.

As the steering committee of the Council grows so do partnerships at other levels and from various corners of the world, with the addition of new members at a Supporting level, to work alongside the core group, also announced. In this light, the Hydrogen Council also today welcomes Mitsui & Co, Plug Power, Faber Industries, Faurecia, First Element Fuel (True Zero), Gore and Toyota Tsuho to the initiative as our first Supporting Members and applauds their important contribution to the development of the Council vision, recommendations and advocacy.

‘’We are delighted to welcome these new companies in the Hydrogen Council. Membership continues to grow. This highlights the relevance of our ambition to position Hydrogen among the key solutions for the energy transition, as an essential vector for energy, industry, transport and residential sectors”, said Benoît Potier, Co-Chair of the Hydrogen Council and CEO of Air Liquide.

“The impressive growth of the Hydrogen Council corporate membership shows that hydrogen technology has the widespread support it needs to scale up and soon, nobody will be able to imagine life without it,” added Takeshi Uchiyamada, Co-Chair of the Hydrogen Council and Chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation.

Launched at the World Economic Forum 2017, in Davos, the coalition of 24 CEOs have the ambition to:

• Accelerate their investment in the development and commercialization of the hydrogen and fuel cell sectors
• Encourage key stakeholders increase their backing of hydrogen as part of the future energy mix with appropriate policies and supporting schemes.

Following the success of the launch event, the Council looks to increase activities over the course of their inaugural year. It will begin with an upcoming Investor Day, to be held on the afternoon of September 18th in New York, as an official affiliate event of New York Climate Week and in parallel with the Sustainable Investment Forum. This event will engage both investors and key financing players within hydrogen markets and stimulate a conversation around the potential offered by the implementation of hydrogen deployment solutions at scale.

About the Hydrogen Council:
 

In the first global initiative of its kind, the Hydrogen Council is determined to position hydrogen among the key solutions of the energy transition. Hydrogen is a versatile energy carrier with favourable characteristics since it does not release any CO2 at the point of use as a clean fuel or energy source, and can play an important role in the transition to a clean, low-carbon, energy system. Hydrogen technologies and products have significantly progressed over past years and are now being introduced to the market. The Council will work with, and provide recommendations to, a number of key stakeholders such as policy makers, business and hydrogen players, international agencies and civil society to achieve these goals.

The Hydrogen Council’s member companies – who collectively represent total revenues of over €1.3 trillion and more than 2.06 million employees around the world¹ - include: Air Liquide, Alstom, Anglo American, Audi, BMW GROUP, Daimler, ENGIE, Faber Industries, Faurecia, First Element Fual (True Zero), Gore, Honda, Hyundai Motor, Iwatani, Kawasaki, Mitsui & Co, Plastic Omnium, Plug Power, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil, The Linde Group, Total, Toyota and Toyota Tsusho.

¹ Company figures from financial years 2015 and 2016