Skilling Youth For Green Hydrogen(Green Skills, Green Hydrogen & Green Jobs) on World Youth Skills Day

By Sailesh Singhal & Ravi Karkara

In 2014, the United Nations General Assembly declared 15 July as World Youth Skills Day, to celebrate the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship. Since then, World Youth Skills Day events have provided a unique opportunity for dialogue between young people, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, firms, employers’ and workers’ organizations, policymakers, and development partners. Participants have highlighted the ever-increasing significance of skills as the world is embarking on a transition towards a sustainable model of development[1].

Importance of Green Hydrogen & Clean Energy Transition

The use of hydrogen as a fuel is not a new concept. It is currently widely used in different applications such as fuel for cars, refining petroleum, treating metals, producing fertilizer, and processing foods. Hydrogen releases a significant amount of energy when used as a fuel, almost three times what can be obtained from diesel or gasoline. Hydrogen is produced by splitting water by electrolysis. This is a process that uses electricity, a conducting fluid, and a metal catalyst (usually platinum) in a fuel cell. Electrolysis involves using electricity to break down water into oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen released can be used as fuel, or mixed with oxygen to create oxyhydrogen, which is used for welding in the industry, or inhalation therapy against COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases. The added value is that the final products (hydrogen and oxygen) don’t release carbon or other GHGs[2].  

The problem is that hydrogen is an energy carrier and not an energy source, and like electricity, can carry energy but needs a power generation source such as fossil fuels or renewables to create it.  Therefore, extracting hydrogen into a useable form needs another form of energy, and a lot of it. The various color designations that one hears associated with green hydrogen come from the process and the power sources used to generate it. For example, black/brown hydrogen is produced from coal, and grey/blue hydrogen is derived from methane. Both these processes use fossil fuels and release GHGs.  To be considered green, the electricity required for the process should mostly come from renewable power sources such as solar, wind and geothermal. However, solar remains the cheapest and the most accessible source of energy.

The share of green talent in the workforce has increased by more than 38% since 2015[3].

This is one of the findings of the LinkedIn Global Green Skills Report 2022[4].

We expect to see millions of new jobs created globally in the next decade driven by new climate policies and commitments.

The session reached 6 continents and more:

Here are some highlights from the speakers:

• Social, Economical & Environmental Inclusion are key to youth leadership – O’NeallMassamba, Manager of the 2022 #WBGYouthSummit

• The proper integration of Solar hydrogen is key for their further development. Youth can well see the huge disruption – Philippe Malbranche, Programme Director, International Solar Alliance.

• Youth are key to a decarbonised world. Green Hydrogen solutions is critical in Renewable Solutions – Sean Hlomane

• Youth skills are key to global energy transition – Ramanan Ramanathan, Mission Director – Atal Innovation Mission – National Institution for Transforming India – NITI Aayog – Govt of India

• Green Hydrogen Skills are key to future employment opportunities – Aisha Suleiman

• We firmly believe youth leaders of today will create green skills including skills to harness green hydrogen, for a sustainable planet to present and future generations – Sailesh Singhal Co-Founder Youth for Green Hydrogen

• Youth Green Renewable Skills are core to a Green Sustainable World – Ravi Karkara, Co-Founder Youth for Green Hydrogen

Righty, the challenges of tomorrow are different from yesterday and we now have climate change problems. Thus, the need to accelerate climate solutions is increasing and the need for adopting green hydrogen has become must. Thus, innovative Green Hydrogen Tinkering labs could be created to develop more climatic solutions to glocal problem of climate actions, that will be aligned to the UN SDGs.

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[1]https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/articlefile/wysd_2021_draft_concept_note.pdf

[2]https://www.un.org/osaa/news/green-hydrogen-%E2%80%93-viable-option-transform-africas-energy-sector

[3]https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/03/green-skills-for-future-jobs/

[4]https://economicgraph.linkedin.com/en-us/research/global-green-skills-report