Jung Eui-sun, Choi Jae-won, Choi Jung-woo, Jo Hyun-sang... United for the 'Hydrogen Economy'

CEO Hydrogen Council 'H2 Business Summit' 2nd General Meeting
Commitment to Key Contributions for Achieving Hydrogen-Based Carbon Neutrality

Hydrogen Share in Total Carbon Emission Reduction
10% by 2030 · 25% by 2050

The 'Korea H2 Business Summit (H2 Summit),' a hydrogen-themed cooperation platform for corporate CEOs, held its second general meeting two years after its launch in 2021.

They expressed agreement that it is a critical time to communicate companies' steady and continuous investment intentions in hydrogen businesses and to reignite the vitality of Korea's hydrogen industry.

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun is attending the 'Korea H2 Business Summit' held at the Hyatt Hotel in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on the 14th. [Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 14th, the H2 Summit held its 2nd general meeting at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul, attended by top executives from 17 member companies, and announced the 'Summit Initiative for Leading the Global Hydrogen Economy.'

The event was attended by key corporate executives including Chung Euisun, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group; Choi Jae-won, Senior Vice Chairman of SK Group; Choi Jeong-woo, Chairman of POSCO Group; Heo Se-hong, CEO of GS Caltex; Chung Ki-sun, President of HD Hyundai; Cho Hyun-sang, Vice Chairman of Hyosung Group; and Lee Gyu-ho, President of Kolon Group, among others from 17 major companies.

At the 2nd general meeting, the 17 member companies announced the 'Summit Initiative for Leading the Global Hydrogen Economy,' which actively supports business promotion and investment intentions in the hydrogen industry.

First, the H2 Summit set a goal to achieve more than 10% of the total carbon emission reductions by 2030 and more than 25% by 2050 through hydrogen. They also agreed on the need to not only create diverse business collaboration opportunities among member companies but also to strengthen the function of the global hydrogen cooperation platform aimed at generating global investment and domestic and international collaboration opportunities.

Finally, they pledged to strive to create a more effective hydrogen industry ecosystem by strengthening an organic cooperation system with government hydrogen policies.

Currently, the global hydrogen industry is rapidly solidifying a competitive structure centered on major countries such as the United States and Europe and leading companies. Accordingly, there is a need for the H2 Summit member companies to lead a swift transition of the domestic hydrogen economy and simultaneously reaffirm the bold intentions of leading companies to achieve significant hydrogen business outcomes both domestically and internationally.

In particular, in the policy cooperation area, they agreed to actively convey the consolidated opinions of the industry to the government during hydrogen policy formulation to ensure that government policies are implemented swiftly in the field. In the business cooperation area, they announced support for the formation of business consultative bodies on key hydrogen industry topics to resolve common issues among business entities.

Accordingly, consultative bodies will be operated in areas that the domestic hydrogen economy must address first, such as ▲E-methanol consultative body ▲hydrogen utilization for industrial processes consultative body ▲hydrogen utilization for transportation consultative body ▲global hydrogen standards and certification system consultative body, which is expected to accelerate practical cooperation.

Moreover, they gathered opinions to discover opportunities for securing global technologies and to strengthen cooperation and solidarity systems with overseas hydrogen consultative bodies. In the investment cooperation area, they plan to strengthen recruitment activities for additional member companies and financial investors (FIs) to successfully complete hydrogen fund subscriptions within this year. They also plan to launch hydrogen funds by value chain and region, promote investment cooperation with overseas global funds, and accelerate efforts to expand fund size and enhance fund management quality.

Prior to the general meeting, Cho Hyun-sang, Vice Chairman of Hyosung, stated, "Hyosung Group has been working since 2000 to expand the sustainable energy market base through CNG charging business, LNG, and hydrogen charging stations, and has built the largest number of hydrogen charging stations in Korea." He added, "We are accelerating the completion of the liquefied hydrogen plant under construction in Ulsan, and plan to establish liquefied hydrogen charging stations operated directly nationwide in the future."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.