Good afternoon, buongiorno a chi ci segue dall’Italia. It is a great pleasure to kick off this important event dedicated to clean Hydrogen, a market expected to generate globally 2.5 trillion US dollars per year in revenue and create 30 million jobs by 2050.
I strongly believe that this important sector holds a strategic potential for new collaborations between Italy and Japan, thanks to the coordination between our Governments and the activities and technologies that many Italian and Japanese companies have being developing in recent years. Today we will learn more about the most recent technological advancements directly from several Italian and Japanese companies and institutions.
Without any doubt, Japan is a pioneer country in this field. It was one of the first countries in the world to publish, in 2017, a national Basic Hydrogen Strategy, formulated with the aim of effectively developing hydrogen technologies and creating a domestic hydrogen market ahead of the rest of the world.
However, following the 2050 Carbon Neutrality Declaration made in October 2020 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, that caused a tectonic disruption in the world’s energy supply and demand structure, all major industrial Countries have significantly raised their attention to hydrogen to simultaneously meet three targets: achieving carbon neutrality, secure energy supply, and enhance international industrial competitiveness.
In this context, Italy has been among the first European countries to understand the potential of hydrogen and to support the European Union’s policies and instruments, such as “RePowerEU”, a plan specifically dedicated to speeding up the energy transition, and the “European Hydrogen Bank”, a financial tool of 3 billion Euros, aimed at supporting hydrogen production.
In addition, we actively joined the public-private initiative, the “European Hydrogen Backbone” (EHB), currently participated by thirty-three energy infrastructure operators, aimed at creating a network of new and existing pipelines for the transportation of green hydrogen from North Africa by 2030. This network, spanning approximately 3.000 kilometers, most of which across Italy, will greatly contribute in the long period to foster market competition, security of supply, and cross-border collaboration between European countries and their neighbors.
Within the European hydrogen strategy, Italy has also developed its own strategy along two axis: a domestic one and a global one.
The domestic goal is threefold: ensuring hydrogen production for national consumption through the creation of 54 hydrogen valleys by June 2026, mainly in decommissioned industrial areas; creating a distribution network of 40 hydrogen refueling stations along major national roadways; and using hydrogen in “hard-to-abate” industrial sectors as well as in heavy and rail transport.
The global goal is to become a hub to distribute clean hydrogen produced in Mediterranean countries towards the north European countries. In this regard, the “Mattei Plan for Africa” – with its fund of 5.5 billion Euros – will support the production of 10 million tons of clean hydrogen in Algeria and Tunisia by 2030. This Plan, intended to be a cooperation strategy and a partnership model with the African continent, is open to collaborations with other key partners sharing the same interest towards African development, starting – of course – from Japan.
Let me conclude my short intervention by going back to the beginning of my remarks about the potential of collaboration between our companies.
The “Strategic Partnership” that in January 2023 opened a new era in our bilateral relations and the Action Plan approved last June by our Prime Ministers, both recognized the importance and priority of cooperation in the energy sector, particularly green energy.
We therefore have a very strong political framework for strengthening our business, industrial, and technological collaborations in the field of clean hydrogen.
I invite all the Italian and Japanese companies participating today in this event to do their best to find complementarities or common strengths to start new partnerships or cooperation activities. I am sure that the opportunities are many and at reach, and I bet that clean hydrogen will soon be just another sector that will fuel the strengthening of our economic relations, the growth of our economies, and the prosperity of our peoples.