Waking up from hydrogen daydreams
Europe’s time spent sleepwalking to the tune of hydrogen lobbyists – draining funds and political capital for far too long – appears to be coming to an end.
This week, I attended a business leadership conference hosted by the German Chamber of Commerce in Berlin. Attendees, all serious businesspeople, were asked which technology is the key net-zero technology. The number one answer? Hydrogen.
Europe’s fascination with hydrogen has become more like an addiction and a costly one, too.
The European Commission estimates that to produce, transport and consume 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen domestically, investment worth up to €471 billion will be necessary.?
For the odourless gas to be climate-friendly, it must be produced through electrolysis using renewable electricity. To avoid electrolysers taking up all the green power in the grid and boosting demand for coal power, two-thirds of the €471 billion will have to be invested into additional renewables.
To meet the second half of the EU’s hydrogen targets – 10 million tonnes of imports – will require another estimated €500 billion.
That amounts to a €1 trillion dream to get the hydrogen economy from non-existent to infancy into 2030, and the spending certainly wouldn’t end there.
Hydrogen proponents may argue that not all that money will come from taxpayers and, indeed, private investments may end up shouldering much of it. But copious amounts of public funds are being invested right now.
“All relevant EU funds are being mobilised to support an accelerated scale-up of the hydrogen market in Europe,” the Commission stated in March.?
That means shelling out €1 billion every seven years for the Clean Hydrogen Partnership.
The Innovation Fund, meanwhile, which taxpayers’ money spent on carbon prices from the EU’s emissions trading scheme is fed into, has put out multiple calls for hydrogen-related projects to the tune of €1.7 billion.
Then there are the projects deemed “important” to Europe, the so-called IPCEIs (Important Projects of Common European Interest), where EU countries can be more liberal with their financial support to individual sectors.
Hydrogen IPCEIs carry a €10.6 billion price tag. Another €5 billion comes from COVID-19 recovery funds. The European Investment Bank has also put €1 billion towards hydrogen projects.
Commission boss Ursula von der Leyen’s pet project and main production financing vehicle, the hydrogen bank, comes at a comparatively meagre €3 billion. Can you tell Brussels is running out of money for hydrogen?
Add national initiatives to the more than €20 billion from above, and you have an inkling of the size of Europe’s hydrogen daydreams, not to mention how far from achieving anything even close to the stated ambitions we remain.?
Finally, what will all that hydrogen be used for?
Once, lobbyists painted a rosy picture of an entire economy running on hydrogen. But hydrogen cars proved a non-starter while heating with hydrogen has thankfully been banished from people’s minds.
It looks certain that hydrogen will play a role in steelmaking and as a feedstock in the chemical industry, like fertiliser production.
Politicians find the idea of hydrogen as a form of long-term energy storage tempting. Freight shipping and aviation may look to use some form of hydrogen derivate (also known as e-fuels ).
Meanwhile, today’s main consumer of hydrogen, fossil fuel refineries, are on their way out. In a world of electric vehicles, petrochemical uses of hydrogen largely fall away.
Industry demand is projected to be far below the EU’s lofty targets. A 2023 study for the Commission’s energy directorate put the 2050 industry demand for hydrogen at upwards of 42 million tonnes. By 2030, they expect industry demand to be around 3 million tonnes, at most.
Even Hydrogen Europe, the bloc’s staunchest hydrogen advocate, estimates that economy-wide demand for hydrogen – mandated by rules designed to force an early switch to hydrogen – will be 8.5 million tonnes in 2030.
Others, like the e-fuel alliance, a hydrogen-based diesel lobby group, are much more pessimistic in the face of low-ball transport targets.
Demand for hydrogen in transport would amount to around 10 to 12 terawatt-hours – less than half a million tonnes of hydrogen, Tobias Block, head of strategy at the association, said in late August.?
“This is not what the European Union wanted to achieve in the hydrogen strategy,” he stressed.
It is good that Brussels appears to be waking up to the fact that its hydrogen targets outstrip reality now rather than later.
One good example of the wakeup is the curious case of Kenya.?
When Kenyan President William Ruto visited Berlin in March, he spoke colourfully of his country’s ambitions to export hydrogen to Europe. “We will also be a critical partner to Europe in the supply of green hydrogen,” Ruto insisted.?
The plan was almost sound: Leverage Kenya’s abundant potential for renewables, turn that electricity into hydrogen and ship it to Europe at a hefty premium.
In practice, transporting hydrogen is devilishly complicated and not economically viable without a pipeline in place – and Kenya’s distance from Europe makes such a project unlikely.
It has been a refreshing surprise that Kenya’s green hydrogen strategy and roadmap, created with EU funding and announced on Tuesday (5 September), does not chase lofty dreams of shipping hydrogen to another continent.?
Instead, the strategy focuses on what Kenyans can create for themselves, turning their abundant hydrogen into green fertiliser to make the country’s farms some of the world’s climate-friendliest.
Now Europe needs to adopt the hydrogen realism it is exporting at home, too. Increasingly, that appears to be the case.
Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson’s comments that “there is no green future for Europe without an upgraded power grid” in the FT is likely a sign of changing times, while the newly crowned EU Green Deal Chief, Maros ?ef?ovic, has specifically been tasked with managing the bloc’s much-needed grid expansion.
After years of hydrogen hype, Brussels may just focus on electricity – the true fuel of the future.
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Arab league foreign ministers address region's most pressing issues
The 160th meeting discussed the civil war in Sudan, as well as mitigating Iranian and Turkish influence.
urkish and Iranian meddling in Arab affairs were at the top of the agenda during a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on Wednesday.
The Egyptian capital hosted the 160th Arab League Council meeting of Foreign Ministers, with Morocco acting as the session’s chair, taking over from Egypt, which headed the previous session.
The proceedings saw a number of committees convening to discuss various issues including the readmission of Syria to the Arab League, the Arab-Israeli conflict, in addition to Iran and Turkey’s perceived interference in Arab affairs.
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The session sought to address nine main areas through four ministerial committees. They included discussions centred around aiding Palestinians in light of the increased aggression by Israel, and ways to mitigate Iranian and Turkish influence in the region.
The committee on Iran, was led by Saudi Arabia and attended by the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt. A proposed plan on how to mitigate Iranian influence in Arab affairs will be drafted and presented to the general session, a communique said without offering further details.
A separate committee condemned what it called Turkish encroachment on Iraqi sovereign lands, according to a statement it issued following the meeting.
The continuing civil war in Sudan was also one of the main talking points on Wednesday, with the league’s secretary-general Ahmed Abou El Gheit stressing the need for a permanent ceasefire in light of the millions of Sudanese who have had to flee their homes.
Egypt’s dispute with Ethiopia over the construction of a mega dam on the Nile river was one of the highlights of Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry’s opening speech.
Egyptian-Ethiopian negotiations in August on the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the first official talks between all concerned parties since 2021, ended with no change in Addis Ababa’s position.
Mr Shoukri stressed that Ethiopia’s unilateral position on the dam must change as he called on Arab countries to pressure it to come to the table and agree on a binding agreement, something that Addis Ababa has continuously refused to do.
He expressed Egypt's support to unifying the Libyan security and military institutions under a single executive authority capable of ruling the country effectively, urging to hold Libyan presidential and parliamentary elections soon.
Wednesday’s meeting was also attended by Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau and Philipe Lazzirini, the Commissioner General of UNRWA.
Arab league foreign ministers address region's most pressing issues (thenationalnews.com)
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KLEPTOCRACY
GABON’S BONGO FAMILY ENRICHED ITSELF OVER 56 YEARS OF KLEPTOCRATIC RULE, SPREADING ITS WEALTH ACROSS THE WORLD
The Bongo family ruled Gabon for most of its independence. While the country stagnated and poverty remained, the family amassed vast wealth —?much of it hidden offshore.
By Micah Reddy
A coup in Gabon has marked the end of over half a century of unbroken dynastic rule during which the Bongo family accumulated enormous wealth both at home and offshore, as revealed by the Pandora Papers and several other investigations.
Soldiers seized power in the Central African nation last Wednesday, just hours after ailing president Ali Bongo was declared the winner of a disputed election. It was the third in which Bongo claimed victory — the previous two, in 2016 and 2009, were marred by violence and accusations of vote rigging.
Bongo was placed under house arrest and several of his close associates, including his son, Eton-educated Noureddin Bongo Valentin, were arrested for treason, embezzlement and corruption. The details of those charges remain unclear, but the Bongo regime has been labeled a kleptocracy by experts and advocacy groups throughout its existence.
A one-time musician, Ali Bongo came to power in 2009 after the death of his father Omar Bongo, whose nearly 42-year authoritarian rule was aided by his closeness to the former colonizer, France, and his use of Gabon’s petrodollars to build a network of patronage. Choice appointments such as cabinet positions went to trusted family members, and the father and son amassed vast wealth while presiding over a small population of 2.3 million.
Though Gabon is rich in oil and defined as a middle-income country, at least a third of the population is impoverished and unemployment is rife. Attempts to grow the middle class and diversify the economy had limited success, with oil accounting for around 70% of the country’s exports in 2020, according to the World Bank.
Amid a flagging economy, rising costs of living and growing inequality, a tiny elite connected to Bongo and his inner circle thrived as the growing wealth gap fueled popular resentment. The Bongos flaunted their status as one of Africa’s richest first families, maintaining fleets of luxury cars in a country with fewer miles of paved roads than of oil pipelines, and buying mansions in the United States and France. The popular term “Bongo system” came to describe this unbridled accumulation of wealth.
The family also funneled substantial wealth into offshore tax havens. ICIJ’s 2021?Pandora Papers investigation provided a glimpse into Ali Bongo’s offshore interests, revealing that he was the director of one shell company in the British Virgin Islands and that he held a stake in another BVI company alongside two political associates.
An email from 2008, when Bongo was Gabon’s minister of defense, noted that he was the major shareholder of Gazeebo Investments Ltd. and described him as a “civil servant.” The two associates were Jean-Pierre Oyiba, who was head of the presidential cabinet until 2009 when he resigned following a corruption scandal (he was not charged and denied wrongdoing), and Claude Sezalory, a Gabonese politician who was married to Sylvia Bongo Ondimba before she married Ali Bongo in 1989.
Bongo’s press office did not respond to ICIJ’s repeated requests for comment at the time of the investigation.
Much of the Bongos’ wealth was channeled into foreign properties. In a November 2020 report , OCCRP revealed that over the prior two decades the Bongos and their inner circle “purchased at least seven properties worth over US$4.2 million in and near the U.S. capital … .” Among those involved was the long-serving head of the constitutional court who was instrumental in helping the family hang onto power and is currently being detained under the coup. The report noted that “The Bongos’ Washington, D.C.-area homes were all purchased with cash.”
In the 1990s, investigators in the U.S. found that over $100 million had moved through U.S. bank accounts linked to Bongo senior.
The Bongos’ wealth has not escaped scrutiny in France, where probes that began under Omar Bongo’s presidency have strained relations between the former colonial power and the family it historically viewed as a reliable ally in Africa. A 2007 French police inquiry found that the family owned 39 properties and had 70 bank accounts. Faced with official reluctance to pursue the matter, civil society organizations, including Transparency International, went to court to force the French state’s hand, winning a precedent-setting case in 2010 in which the highest French court cleared the path for investigations against the ruling families of Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Congo.
The case led to the seizure of some Bongo family properties in 2016, including luxury mansions in Nice and Paris.
Last year, French authorities indicted several Bongo family members and associates, including at least nine half-brothers and sisters of Ali Bongo, for corruption, misappropriating public funds and money laundering. The 15-year-old case concerned alleged “undue commissions” paid by French energy company Elf and corrupt real estate transactions worth at least 85 million euros (about $94.6 million at the time of the indictment).
The last three years have been turbulent for several African countries whose governments have been toppled by coups: Niger, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Guinea and Mali. A failed coup attempt in Gabon in 2019, when Bongo was abroad for medical treatment, was a sign of things to come.
Coup leader Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, head of the Republican Guard, is now in charge of the country. His intervention ends the Bongos’ rule, but power remains within the elite and the extended family — Nguema is a distant cousin of Ali Bongo. He too was mentioned in the OCCRP report as having bought three properties in the U.S. for over $1 million, paid for in cash.
Since the coup, state television in Gabon has broadcast images of bags full of cash allegedly being seized from officials’ houses. Nguema, who was sworn in as the country’s new leader on Monday, had promised the military would return power to a civilian government, but did not want to “repeat past mistakes” by rushing the transition, according to reporting by Al Jazeera .
About: Last year, French authorities indicted several Bongo family members and associates, including at least nine half-brothers and sisters of Ali Bongo, for corruption, misappropriating public funds and money laundering. The 15-year-old case concerned alleged “undue commissions” paid by French energy company Elf and corrupt real estate transactions worth at least 85 million euros (about $94.6 million at the time of the indictment).
The last three years have been turbulent for several African countries whose governments have been toppled by coups: Niger, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Guinea and Mali. A failed coup attempt in Gabon in 2019, when Bongo was abroad for medical treatment, was a sign of things to come.
Coup leader Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, head of the Republican Guard, is now in charge of the country. His intervention ends the Bongos’ rule, but power remains within the elite and the extended family — Nguema is a distant cousin of Ali Bongo. He too was mentioned in the OCCRP report as having bought three properties in the U.S. for over $1 million, paid for in cash.
Since the coup, state television in Gabon has broadcast images of bags full of cash allegedly being seized from officials’ houses. Nguema, who was sworn in as the country’s new leader on Monday, had promised the military would return power to a civilian government, but did not want to “repeat past mistakes” by rushing the transition, according to reporting by Al Jazeera .
Last year, French authorities indicted several Bongo family members and associates, including at least nine half-brothers and sisters of Ali Bongo, for corruption, misappropriating public funds and money laundering. The 15-year-old case concerned alleged “undue commissions” paid by French energy company Elf and corrupt real estate transactions worth at least 85 million euros (about $94.6 million at the time of the indictment).
The last three years have been turbulent for several African countries whose governments have been toppled by coups: Niger, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Guinea and Mali. A failed coup attempt in Gabon in 2019, when Bongo was abroad for medical treatment, was a sign of things to come.
Coup leader Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, head of the Republican Guard, is now in charge of the country. His intervention ends the Bongos’ rule, but power remains within the elite and the extended family — Nguema is a distant cousin of Ali Bongo. He too was mentioned in the OCCRP report as having bought three properties in the U.S. for over $1 million, paid for in cash.
Since the coup, state television in Gabon has broadcast images of bags full of cash allegedly being seized from officials’ houses. Nguema, who was sworn in as the country’s new leader on Monday, had promised the military would return power to a civilian government, but did not want to “repeat past mistakes” by rushing the transition, according to reporting by Al Jazeera .
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