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We are working with Scotland’s Enterprise Agencies to develop the Hydrogen Sector Export Plan and this will be informed by the findings of commissioned reports on identifying priority international markets for Scottish companies to target and assesses demand for hydrogen and hydrogen products in North West Europe. We are also supporting Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC) work on the Hydrogen Backbone Link project seeking to establish the case for a hydrogen export pipeline from Scotland to mainland Europe.

We have supported several trade delegations including to Dubai Expo and, in January this year, Hyvolution in France, to which it is planned to return next year. We have supported visit programmes of several inward delegations, including from India, Singapore and German States.

Scottish Development International (SDI) has taken a strategic and targeted approach to attracting direct foreign investment to Scotland. It is focused on attracting hydrogen producers, supply chain companies and end users. Our hydrogen opportunity is being promoted internationally by SDI’s overseas offices and by relevant UK Government departments. This has catalysed visits to Scotland by companies, innovation partnerships with universities, a strong project concept pipeline and initial investments.

We are engaging and supporting companies throughout Scotland that are already undertaking or are interested in hydrogen opportunities, as well as others with potentially transferrable skills and currently not active in the sector to raise awareness of potential opportunity areas. Scotland’s Enterprise Agencies are capturing companies’ capabilities and compiling a soon to be publicly available online database to provide a useful tool for supply chain, project developers and investors keen to understand and work with Scotland’s hydrogen supply chain.

Scottish Enterprise recently ran a year-long Hydrogen Expert Support programme in which 33 Scottish companies participated, including manufacturers, technology developers or technical service providers seeking to diversify into or grow in the hydrogen sector. Scottish Enterprise funded workshops with an expert consultancy which provided each company with a tailored report giving them information on the sector and recommendations on what steps they could take to get involved based on their capabilities and ambitions.

The Scottish Government and Scotland’s Enterprise Agencies are also working with partners and stakeholders such as NECCUS and the Scottish Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Association to further the development of a hydrogen economy cluster for Scotland.

The Hydrogen Sector Export Plan will consider the short-term export opportunities around skills and the supply chain, as well as the economic opportunity for Scotland represented by the export of renewable hydrogen in the longer term.

To support the development of the Hydrogen Sector Export Plan, the Scottish Government have commissioned research to investigate low-carbon hydrogen demand scenarios in North-West European regions and sectors up to 2045.

This work will sit alongside research being conducted on the economic competitiveness of hydrogen in various sectors and end-uses, such as for aviation transport or for refineries, to establish the most likely off-taker markets for hydrogen and the current best estimates for the likely size of these markets.

Research has also been commissioned to map the key markets and opportunities for Scottish hydrogen supply chain goods and services. Together, this research will provide a robust evidence base demonstrating economic opportunity for hydrogen in Europe according to current available data.

The Hydrogen Sector Export Plan will be published later this year alongside a suite of research, including the North Sea Hydrogen Alliance project conducted by NZTC in partnership with Cruh21 which will match Scottish hydrogen production with German demand.

The Taskforce is making good progress with the development of its recommended actions and will continue to work until members have agreed a comprehensive action plan. We anticipate the publication of a report later in 2024.

The Scottish Government publishes the agreed minutes and actions from each meeting on its website: www.gov.scot/groups/nursing-and-midwifery-taskforce/

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .