00:01International shipping carries around 90% of the world's trade.
00:07No surprise then that it accounts for a billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year,
00:13including 3% of the world's global CO2 emissions.
00:18That's more than Spain, France, Portugal and Greece combined.
00:23The International Monetary Fund has set a net zero shipping target by 2050,
00:29but how will this be achieved?
00:32Biofuels and green hydrogen, say insiders.
00:35When you use renewable energy, like wind or solar,
00:38to separate hydrogen from oxygen in water using an electrolyzer,
00:43you get green hydrogen.
00:45Think of it as electricity stored in liquid or gas form,
00:50and when burned, the only waste product is water.
00:53Spain's abundant sun, wind and key global shipping routes
00:57make it a prime candidate for green hydrogen production.
01:01Spanish petrol company Moeve, formerly Cepsa,
01:04is the country's leading supplier of marine fuels.
01:08So green hydrogen forms the base fuel in order to create more manageable fuels
01:14like green ammonia, green methanol, which can be used to decarbonise shipping.
01:18Energy transition is unstoppable.
01:20And we see it in line with our strategy to invest somewhere in the region of 8 billion euro
01:27to become the leading supplier of low carbon energy by 2030.
01:32Chinese companies are on board too.
01:34High Green Energy, a global electrolyzer maker,
01:37recently signed off on a $2.2 billion investment in the Andalusia region.
01:42And Envision announced another billion dollar deal to develop the first hydrogen net zero industrial park in Europe.
01:51Together, we are laying the foundation for Spain to become a European leader,
01:56as Leigh has said before, and a global player in the green hydrogen revolution.
02:02Experts predict that the hydrogen market could be worth as much as $2.5 trillion a year by 2050.
02:10And Spain wants to be a key player, particularly in green hydrogen
02:14and the fuels that are going to power more sustainable shipping.
02:19But is this the great green hope or just great green hype?
02:23Detractors say that it takes more energy to produce, store and transport hydrogen
02:28than it actually provides in useful energy.
02:32And one of the world's leading climate scientists, Robert Howarth,
02:35has called green hydrogen largely a marketing creation by the oil and gas industry.
02:42Despite the doubts, it's already scaling up with sustainable shipping and aviation in its sights.
02:49Ken Brown, CGTN, Madrid.
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