Government have appointed the first ever hydrogen "champion" Jane Toogood.

According to BEIS she will help drive industry investment and deployment at this critical stage in the early development of the UK hydrogen economy. She will identify current barriers to building a strong UK hydrogen economy and develop creative solutions for how these can be addressed to accelerate the project pipeline and deliver on the UK government commitments.

Hydrogen Champion Jane Toogood said:

'The government has ambitious plans for the UK to ramp up hydrogen technology. Hydrogen deployment as a clean energy source is one of the key solutions to help the UK reach its net zero targets and I strongly believe there is an opportunity to accelerate this, working collaboratively across industry and government to land projects and infrastructure on a timeline that serves stakeholder and customers' needs.'

'At Johnson Matthey, we see that demand for hydrogen ecosystems globally is being taken up across industry, transportation and the power sector at a rapid pace, especially with the increased focus on energy security. As the UK's Hydrogen Champion, working with industry and government, I hope to ensure we make progress in building a thriving hydrogen economy ensuring private sector investment and policy decisions are aligned to support timely decisions and outcomes.'

 

About Jane Toogood

Jane is Chief Executive of Catalyst Technologies at Johnson Matthey, a FTSE 250 company which is a major player in the research and development of technologies to accelerate the transition towards net zero.

Jane is co-Chair (with the BEIS Secretary of State) of the Hydrogen Advisory Council, created for government and industry to work together to identify and promote the actions required to enable the supply of low carbon hydrogen at scale for use across the UK's energy system.

She has a wealth of experience in business transformation and growth, built over many years across global companies, covering multiple industry sectors from automotive, to healthcare, to petrochemicals.

BEIS have released a range of hydrogen documents today including a Hydrogen Sector Development Roadmap.

More information can be found here