This project will examine the emerging low carbon hydrogen market and the potential impacts on the economy, international trade and jobs. This PhD project will add value to CEP’s current work exploring the green jobs market, the macroeconomic implications of decarbonisation and the emerging capital investment in hydrogen systems in the UK.

Given the emerging plans to extend hydrogen pipelines across the UK and Europe, the UK and Scottish policy interest in becoming significant producers of hydrogen, and the developing industrial interest in hydrogen use for industrial, domestic and transport applications, this area is of increasing interest in the policy discourse on decarbonisation. An understanding of the systems and macroeconomic dynamics is vital for informing policy and decision-making debates with real evidence and analysis.

The jobs and skills requirements of this emerging hydrogen economy and the reducing employment in contracting energy markets are also a subject of this PhD. The green jobs market, and the shared experience in other countries with similar or divergent energy market and employment dynamics.

In particular, the experience of countries like Norway, Brazil and the United States of America all have fossil fuel and emerging low carbon energy markets and challenges relating to jobs and skills. An understanding of the similarities, differences and what has worked in terms of policy will provide valuable evidence for future decision making.

This PhD will meet the following objectives:

• Define the plausible scenarios for hydrogen infrastructure development and international trade based on review of the available evidence and expert elicitation?
• Establish a plausible range of costs for these infrastructure capital investments, where might these occur and what mechanism might be used to pay for them.
• Assess the economic impacts of hydrogen investments and establish the counterfactual investment options and economic trade-offs.
• Identify the jobs and skills issues, how does this interact with the surrounding context of jobs and skills in the wider energy economy and how to efficiently retrain the necessary workforce fit for the future energy economy.

Further information

The successful candidate will join a growing team of world-class researchers, academics and knowledge exchange professionals at the University of Strathclyde’s Centre for Energy Policy (CEP).

CEP investigates the economy-wide and societal outcomes of different pathways and actions to reach net zero.