U.K. appoints its first hydrogen champion
Jane Toogood has been tasked to drive the development of the alternative fuel by uniting the industry and the government together.
The United Kingdom’s government has appointed its first hydrogen champion to boost cooperation between companies and official authorities in favour of a cleaner industry. The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng, appointed Jane Toogood as the first to occupy this position to start building a cleaner future for the region.
Kwarteng made the announcement while speaking at the Hydrogen Investment Summit. During his speech, he also confirmed a new round of funding to reaffirm the government’s commitment to create a hydrogen-based economy as the Hydrogen Strategy published in August of 2021 stated.
“The UK’s hydrogen sector is open for business. With the right investment, we can unlock the enormous potential of hydrogen by reindustrialising our economy and ending our dependency on expensive fossil fuels,” said the government official as reported by local news site Forecourt Trader.
Toogood currently acts as Chief Executive of Catalyst Technologies at Johnson Matthey and is Co-Chair of the Hydrogen Advisory Council. In her new role, she will lead this transformation with the objective of bringing industry and government together to fulfil its hydrogen ambitions.
“The government has ambitious plans for the UK to ramp up hydrogen technology. Hydrogen deployment as a clean energy source is one of the key solutions to help the UK reach its net zero targets and I strongly believe there is an opportunity to accelerate this, working collaboratively across industry and government to land projects and infrastructure on a timeline that serves stakeholder and customers’ needs,” added the recently appointed hydrogen champion.
