Hydrogen Green Metrics Report WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS
Series—Week One
This is SEP’s first entry in a weekly series highlighting key insights from our report. Today, we refine our understanding of hydrogen, greenhouse gases (GHGs), and their respective roles in atmospheric concentrations.
Hydrogen is an indirect greenhouse gas with a GWP100 of 12. Atmospheric concentration is relatively low and annual hydrogen production-related leaks are a small fraction of total hydrogen sources. Growth in clean hydrogen production as part of the energy transition to decarbonize many hard-to-abate industries necessitates low leak rates. The SEP report Hydrogen Green Metrics investigates this and other environmental features of hydrogen production, transportation, and use.
Global hydrogen production accounts for 2–3% of net GHG emissions, primarily due to a gray hydrocarbon-based production pathway such as steam methane reforming (SMR). Clean hydrogen offers the potential to significantly reduce or eliminate this carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) footprint.
While hydrogen itself is not a GHG, it interacts with other atmospheric gases in ways that amplify GHG concentrations, making it an indirect GHG regardless of its production method. However, its atmospheric concentration remains relatively low.
For more information, the report may be accessed here: https://www.saoradh.com/marketplace-new
—SEP Hydrogen Innovation Report, Chapter 2: Green Metrics, January 2025
About Saoradh Enterprise Partners
Saoradh Enterprise Partners (SEP) is a cleantech venture capital and research firm based in Boulder, Colorado. SEP partners with innovators, entrepreneurs, and corporations to develop cleantech solutions at the magical intersection of science (what’s possible), finance (what’s bankable), industry (what’s needed), and planet (what matters). Learn more at www.saoradh.com.
Media contact:
Jackson Levin, Business Development & Communications, Hydrogen Data Consortium
+1 (303) 448-2115 (office main number)
+1 (414) 405-3743 (cell)