The hydrogen revolutionary

Europe should move towards a hydrogen economy, a controversial American economist, Jeremy Rifkin, will argue next week in a series of meetings with MEPs and business leaders.

Rifkin, an advocate of renewable energies, is calling for a "third industrial revolution" to enable Europe to move close towards achieving zero carbon emissions.

"The third industrial revolution" is a phrase that has become as fashionable as "the knowledge economy" was at the turn of the millennium. Four weeks ago (1 October), José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said that Europe was standing on the brink of one. In April this year, 420 MEPs voted on a resolution for one. In an interview with European Voice, Jeremy Rifkin gave his take on it.

According to Rifkin, the third industrial revolution is "the convergence of a new energy revolution and a new communications revolution". Essentially, this is a big increase in renewable power, use of hydrogen to store energy and ‘smart grids’ to allow consumers to send electricity back to the grid and change their demand for electricity based on up-to-the minute information on changing prices. Rifkin thinks there is a parallel between the communications and energy revolution. "Our children are growing up in a distributed world," he says, citing Google, Wikipedia and My Space. "Increasingly we are going to produce and share energy in the same way that we produce information," he claims.

Rifkin has explored these themes in a paper he sent to José Sócrates, the Portuguese prime minister who is currently chairing the European Council. At a conference in Paris next week (9 November), he will repeat his case in an attempt to persuade France to end its love affair with nuclear power. Rifkin says that "if [France’s President Nicolas] Sarkozy wants to create a legacy for Europe…he has to move with the younger generation that is moving towards distributed energy and distributed communication coming together".

"Distributed energy" is Rifkin’s description of renewables, because he says it is derived from energy (sun, wind, agricultural waste) that is widely distributed. But he does not think France will give up nuclear power. Rifkin’s last foray into French politics came when he made the case for the 35-hour week.

Rifkin heads the Foundation on Economic Trends, which is dedicated to promoting his books and speeches. His back catalogue is an array of big claims: it includes The Biotech Century, The End of Work and Time Wars: the Primary Conflict in Human History. He is best known in Brussels, for his 2004 book The European Dream, in which he lauded Europe’s social model for its emphasis on "community relationships over individual autonomy, cultural diversity over assimilation, quality of life over the accumulation of wealth, sustainable development over unlimited material growth, deep play over unrelenting toil".

Now he says that "Europe needs a mission for its next 50 years". He argues that Europe is leading the way on climate change. "Europe has walked the walk, the European public is willing to make sacrifices and take the risk overall to be the leader in sustainable development." Despite arguments over renewables and over European appetites for cheap air travel, Rifkin says: "If I distance myself and ask which region of the world is the most advanced in potential for moving to a third industrial revolution and sustainable development …it is Europe."

Rifkin’s website says that he is serving as an adviser to Sócrates and is an "informal adviser" to the European Commission and the European Parliament. A source at the Portuguese presidency said that he was not an adviser and clarified that Rifkin was one of many consultants who were asked to pitch in ideas for a vision paper on the generation, consumption and transmission of energy that Manuel Pinho, the Portuguese minister for the economy and innovation, will present to the Energy Council on 3 December.

• Jennifer Rankin is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.

Europe should move towards a hydrogen economy, a controversial American economist, Jeremy Rifkin, will argue next week in a series of meetings with MEPs and business leaders.