Deben brands mass hydrogen home heating as ‘nonsense’

Lord Deben has shot down gas company claims that hydrogen can still play a central role in the future of home heating in the UK.

The Conservative peer, who stepped down as chair of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) last year, told the Utility Week Forum that there are “some places where hydrogen would be sensible”, such as heavy industry hubs.

However, he said the assertion that hydrogen could still feature heavily in domestic heating was “nonsense”, and suggesting otherwise would only hinder the rollout of heat pumps.

“The fact of the matter is it’s a nonsense: it doesn’t make sense,” Deben said.

“It (hydrogen) will have a part to play but it certainly isn’t a central part and I’m glad that the (National) Infrastructure Commission has made that quite clear,” Lord Deben added, referring to last year’s recommendation by the commission that hydrogen should be ruled out for home heating.

He added that it will not be possible to produce enough green hydrogen at a sufficiently competitive price to be rolled out in mass home heating.

Speaking later at the conference, Cadent head of energy transition David Watson denied that the gas industry is holding up the transition to an electrified heating system, while acknowledging that there is a risk that the gas network will supply less demand by 2050.

But he said the question of hydrogen’s role in in home heating “remains open” and Cadent’s “role and responsibility” is to help to provide evidence that will enable government to take a “balanced” decision on the issue by 2026 when ministers have promised to do so.

Deben made his comments while participating in the UW Forum Oxford debate on whether it is too late for the UK to decarbonise.

In his opening speech setting out why it is not too late, the former Conservative cabinet minister praised the opposition Labour Party for putting forward “some extremely good steps” on decarbonisation.

But like other mainstream parties, Labour faces internal opposition on the pace of decarbonisation from “people who don’t like it because for the short term, it makes life more difficult for them”, he said.

Deben added that the “worst position” was that taken by Rishi Sunak which was to not go down the path of net zero by 2050 while saying he is, which he described as “wishful thinking”.

Emphasising that government must approach efforts to hit net zero with “urgency”, the ex-CCC chair said: “We are not past the tipping point but we are very close to changes taking place, which will be extremely difficult to reverse.”

He was opposed in the debate by Green Party founder Professor Michael Benfield, who said efforts to decarbonise are “paralysed by short term political obfuscation” and government policies “still lack the foresight needed for significant environmental action”.