Standards Development

Scope

The scope of this proposal is to establish a methodology and analytical framework to determine the GHG emissions related to a unit of produced hydrogen up to the production gate.

Purpose

The Paris Agreement was established at the COP21 in Paris, on December 12, 2015 to
strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, keep the global temperature rise
in this century well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels meanwhile pursuing efforts to limit the
temperature increase even further, to 1.5°C. For such, Green House Gas (GHG) emissions need
to be reduced by about 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching net zero in 2050 (IPCC, 2022;
UNFCCC, 2021).
GHG reduction is a major challenge for the 21st century. Only in 2022, energy-related emissions
were responsible for an additional 36.8 gigatons (Gt) of CO2 in the atmosphere. Out of that,
14.65 Gt CO2e were released by power generation (39,81%), 9.15 Gt CO2 were consequences
of industrial activities (24,86%), 7.98 Gt CO2 were emitted by the transport sector (21,68%) and
the other 5.02 Gt CO2 falls into building and other sectors (IEA,2023). In 2022, GHG emissions
increased by 1%, to a record breaking 41.3 Gt CO2eq (IEA,2023).
To achieve the Paris Agreement goals by 2050, it is crucial to immediately act on the
decarbonization of existing energy systems. Low emission energy sources that have high global
potential ought to be widely implemented to meet current and increasing future worldwide energy
demand. Nonetheless, energy-intensive sectors, such as heavy-duty long-distance
transportation, fertilizers and some industrial activities are hard-to-abate. Considering the growth
in energy demand and the dire need for technologies that are more efficient in the use of energy,
while emitting less GHG, hydrogen comes into play as a major contributor to fostering
sustainable development and deep decarbonization.
Low emission hydrogen can be produced from diverse sources including renewables, nuclear
and fossil fuels. It can be used to decarbonize numerous sectors including transportation,
industrial manufacturing, and power generation, due to possessing an expressive energy
content, being a versatile energy carrier and a fuel, since occurrences of natural hydrogen have
been proved on earth. Low emission hydrogen is also one of the main alternatives to address
issues related to renewable electricity daily fluctuations and geographical dispersion. To produce
low emission hydrogen using fossil fuels, it is necessary to use carbon capture, utilization, and
storage (CCUS) methods to reduce the emissions associated with its production.
Over 41 countries have launched roadmaps or national strategies to include hydrogen in their
energy mix, accounting for nearly 80% of the global energy-related CO2 emissions. (IEA, 2023)
Global market for low emission hydrogen is expected to be between 12 (stated policies scenario)
and 117 (net zero scenario) billion dollars, with more than 12 Mt of low-emission hydrogen being
produced per year (IEA, 2023).

Leading organizations including the International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the
Economy (IPHE), the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) /
Mission Innovation (MI) are taking actions on four main issues individually and collaboratively to
scale up and accelerate the deployment of hydrogen technologies. This includes collaboration
on technologies and harmonization of regulation, codes and standards, and the collection,
analysis and sharing of data to evaluate the potential of hydrogen and its effect on CO2 and
other emissions reduction, both upstream and downstream, across a variety of hydrogen
production pathways.
To enable a robust and sustainable market for hydrogen technologies, it is necessary to develop
clean, affordable, secure, and reliable supply chains to support the development of effective
hydrogen trading markets. To this end, countries will need to put in place standards and
protocols that are transparent and facilitate efficient international trade in hydrogen. This will
require international standards developed by the relevant international standards development
bodies, which in turn will facilitate the removal and/or reduction of regulatory barriers, will help
develop new, innovative technologies and will form a common definition of low emission
hydrogen.
A particular challenge is that identical hydrogen molecules can be produced and combined from
sources with very different GHG intensities. Likewise, hydrogen-based fuels and products will
be indistinguishable and might result from hydrogen being combined with a range of fossil and
low-carbon inputs. Indeed, some of the products made from hydrogen (e.g., electricity) could
themselves be used in the production of hydrogen. Accounting standards for different sources
of hydrogen along the supply chain will be fundamental to creating a market for low-emission
hydrogen, and these standards need to be agreed internationally.
To this end, it is proposed to establish a methodology and analytical framework to determine the
GHG emissions related to a unit of produced hydrogen up to production gate. It may serve as a
basis of certification schemes. However, it will not provide guidance on any GHG emissions
intensity threshold values. This will remain the responsibility of each sovereign country even if
common terminologies and thresholds will facilitate an international trade of hydrogen.

This NP is the first part of a family of International Standards consisting of the following parts:
• Part 1: Hydrogen production
• Part 2: Hydrogen conditioning and transport of LH2
• Part 3: Hydrogen conversion and transport of LOHC
• Part 4: Hydrogen conversion and transport of NH3
NOTE: ISO IS 19870 family shall use ISO TS 19870 as seed document. Each part shall be
submitted under its own NP and timeframe.
Note: in case the WI is based on documents from other organizations than ISO/IEC, please specify it here