In November 2024, at the 42nd IPHE Steering Committee Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, IPHE Members agreed to the formation of a TF to address the question of permitting for hydrogen technologies deployment.

Following the important development of hydrogen over the recent years, the establishment of a Task Force on Permitting in the hydrogen sector becomes crucial to accelerate the development and deployment of hydrogen technologies: despite its promise, the hydrogen sector faces significant barriers in terms of permitting and regulatory processes. These can be complex, fragmented, and inconsistent, often leading to significant delays, increased costs, and uncertainty for project developers.

The scope of work of the Task Force covers two main areas:

• Gap analysis within permitting environments, identifying (good) practices as well as gaps

• Provision of a document in the form of a report, presenting findings of the gap analysis and recommending most pressing actions for streamlining best practises mainly to the ultimate intention to permitting bodies.

• A revision of the report and component can be scheduled over the years since major evolution is expected in the field of permitting for hydrogen technologies.

To date, this type of work has never been undertaken and the IPHE is naturally placed to convey the vision of its members and reflect on their experience: it aims to provide a deeper understanding of existing permitting processes as well as a sound basis to support reaching consensus on best practises across regions/countries for hydrogen, thus contributing to the acceleration of roll-out of hydrogen technologies.

The Task Force is led by the USA and counts 17 individuals from 9 countries.