Canada Germany Hydrogen Alliance

Russia’s unprecedented and unjustified war in Ukraine, which began in 2014 and significantly broadened on February 24, 2022, has caused an extraordinary depth of pain and suffering on the part of the people of Ukraine.  The scope of the war has expanded beyond the humanitarian crisis and extensive physical destruction in Ukraine, to include sanctions against Russia on the part of the west, as well as Russia shutting off supplies of energy to the west, most noticeably shutting of natural gas supplies to Europe.  The curtailment of energy supplies from Russia to Europe has caused a massive disruption in energy markets across the globe, including oil and natural gas. 

Before 2022, Germany was receiving as much as 55% of their supply of natural gas from Russia, representing a very large country risk exposure.  Germany, because of their high dependency on Russia for their natural gas, is facing the most extreme potential set of impacts from Russia’s curtailment of natural gas deliveries.     

Germany is working very hard to limit the impact of Russian energy supply disruptions on their energy system, people and economy.  Germany has set a goal of being free of Russian natural gas in 2024.  In response to Russia curtailing natural gas deliveries, Germany is focused principally on finding new sources of natural gas.  This includes sourcing new supplies via pipelines across Europe, and securing sources of liquified natural gas from around the world. 

In addition to securing additional supplies of pipeline natural gas and LNG supplies, a second order solution to securing natural gas is to secure forms of energy that will displace natural gas or reduce its use.  Hydrogen is a potential candidate for several applications. 

Accordingly, Canada and Germany have established the Canada-Germany Hydrogen Alliance to export hydrogen from Canada to Germany, with the objective to help Germany secure sources of energy to address natural gas shortfalls from Russia.    

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