"Lead markets are necessary to accelerate the adoption of clean hydrogen" (PwC/Hydrogen Europe)

"The EU ETS and CBAM alone are not sufficient to close the cost gap between conventional and clean primary steel and fertiliser production routes. This highlights the urgent need for new regulatory approaches such as lead markets to accelerate the uptake of clean hydrogen via clean primary steel and ammonia-based fertilisers", says a PwC report "H2 Lead Markets" commissioned by Hydrogen Europe and published on 18/11/2025.

The report assesses how lead markets could be developed for the European hydrogen sector and which demand-side models could have an impact on the steel and fertiliser industries.

As part of the package of measures to implement the Clean Industrial Pact, "the Industrial Accelerator Act should propose specific tools and measures for certain industrial sectors - green lead markets - with the aim of achieving both decarbonisation and the competitiveness of European industry as a whole", says Hydrogen Europe.

" If the Commission does not propose strong sectoral measures in the IAA, all the talk of a clean industrial agreement will have been in vain. It will be the end of…