Hydrogen could ‘lift EU out of economic stagnation’

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 08/09/05

Developing clean hydrogen fuels could lift the EU out of economic stagnation and create millions of jobs on the continent, according to Jeremy Rifkin.

Rifkin, the author of the best-selling book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, said this week that Europe was ideally placed to develop a clean hydrogen economy and launch "the third industrial revolution".

His comments come as a group of members of the European Parliament prepare to launch a manifesto next Monday (12 September), calling for concrete steps enabling Europe to become the first integrated hydrogen economy in the world. The manifesto, signed by members of all major political groups in the Parliament, comprises a 13-point plan, including support for hydrogen pilot projects. MEPs will also call for hydrogen bonds to be issued in order to fund the infrastructure necessary for widespread hydrogen fuel use.

In an interview, Rifkin said that the move away from hydrocarbons towards clean hydrogen could make Europe a global leader in a technology which, given rising oil prices, looks set to grow.

"Now is the time for a debate on the big question of the day, energy security. We are moving towards the end of the oil era very rapidly, the last oil crisis was supply-driven, this is a different ball game."

Critics say that the energy needed to produce hydrogen for fuel cells may make the process inefficient. But Rifkin claims that within 25 years the EU could have the infrastructure necessary to link millions of localised hydrogen fuel cells to a decentralised grid system, heating homes and powering transport with minimum environmental impact.

Rifkin, who was an adviser to then European Commission president Romano Prodi on a hydrogen economy, said that with a widespread political commitment to reducing pollution and a pool of advanced technology centres "Europe can serve as a launching pad for the third industrial revolution". Vittorio Prodi, Romano's brother, is among the signatories of the manifesto.

"The hydrogen economy would create millions and millions of jobs and those jobs would be local," Rifkin said, pointing to the potential benefits of offsetting the shift of manufacturing away from Europe towards China and other low labour cost economies.

Article features comments by author and former adviser to then European Commission president Romano Prodi, Jeremy Rifkin, who said that developing clean hydrogen fuels could lift the EU out of economic stagnation and create millions of jobs on the continent. This came as a group of members of the European Parliament was preparing to launch a manifesto on 12 September 2005 calling for concrete steps enabling Europe to become the first integrated hydrogen economy in the world.

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