Webinar Series: Green hydrogen legislation and contracting - for people and planet
The Green Hydrogen Organisation (GH2) and partners are launching a guidance portal and webinar series on good practices in green hydrogen legislation and contracting.
The guidance has been developed by a group of leading law firms, project developers, governments and civil society organisations to move faster to establish commonly accepted good practices.
Between January and June, practitioners and experts will deep-dive into topics such as legislation and regulatory developments, land and infrastructure access, financing and fiscal terms, community engagement and transparency, sustainable development outcomes and local content, offtake agreements and pricing clauses, and dispute resolution mechanisms.
Join us in moving faster towards a sustainable green hydrogen economy!
Title: Acquiring and using land for green hydrogen projects
Date: Wednesday, 8th February 2023
Time: 14:00-15:00 CET
If the green hydrogen economy is to realise its full potential, it is vital for stakeholders to carefully consider land acquisition and use issues. This is not just a legal matter. A good relationship with local communities often hinges on appropriate and considerate land acquisition and use. This includes using lessons that have already been learnt from the extractive and renewable energy industries. The economic costs of not doing can be high. In addition to economic losses, land use conflicts may also bring significant reputational damage, as well as litigation and liability risk, as a result of heightened awareness and scrutiny of environmental, social and governance-related matters.
The webinar will provide a brief overview of key issues that stakeholders will need to consider when determining how green hydrogen projects should structure land acquisition and use, together with a review of some emerging good practices decisions makers may wish to consider. This includes ensuring it is clear to project developers what approvals and permits are needed, clear environmental regulations, and ensure appropriate compensation for land owned by private parties or inhabited by local communities.
- Moderator: Joe Williams, Director of Strategy and Communications, GH2
- Mark Russell, Partner, and Aileen Buchanan, Managing Associate, Linklaters
- Sacha Kerkhof, Principal Natural Resources Acquisition EMEA, Fortescue Future Industries
- Hansika Agrawal, Legal Researcher, Colombia Centre on Sustainable Investment
Title: Engaging communities and ensuring transparency in green hydrogen projects
Date: Wednesday, 22nd February 2023
Time: 14:00-15:00 CET
In countries hosting large-scale green hydrogen projects, it is highly likely that expectations and hopes for green goods and energy, money, and jobs will be high. It is critical that project developers start engaging local communities early and deeply. Communities should be consulted with from the outset and need to know that they are heard, understood and valued throughout the project. The inherent dignity and importance of local communities should be a guiding principle of project development.
The webinar will present international standards and guidelines for governments and project developers that can be applied to green hydrogen projects. Drawing on the guidance, it will consider lessons learned from good practice in other sectors and from emerging experience in green hydrogen. It will touch on key issues including compliance with environmental and social standards, social impact assessment and plans, anti-corruption, local development agreements and transparency.
Presentation by: Susan Maples, Counsel, Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle
Discussion and Q&A kicked off by:
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Ernst Muller, Senior Associate (ESG EMEA), Herbert Smith Freehills
Title: Financing green hydrogen projects
Date: Wednesday, 8th March 2023
Time: 14:00-15:00 CET
Mobilising large-scale financing for green hydrogen projects and structuring project finance will be a key challenge for governments and project developers. There are a wide variety of possible sources of financial support for green hydrogen projects, including export credit agencies, development finance institutions, commercial banks and governments.
The challenge for green hydrogen projects is to structure an acceptable risk profile for financing by allocating risks to those best able to take them, whether this be sponsors, insurers, financiers or governments. Governments and project developers will need to develop instruments and financing structures with features responding to certain challenges and risks associated with the hydrogen value chain.
Moderated by: Jonas Moberg, CEO, GH2
Presentation by: John-Patrick Sweny, Partner, Latham & Watkins
Discussion and Q&A kicked off by:
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Amir Shafaie, Legal and Economic Programs Director, Natural Resource Governance Institute
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Tove Strauss, Public Finance Consultant, GH2
Title: Fiscal terms and incentives for green hydrogen projects
Date: Wednesday, 22nd March 2023
Time: 14:00-15:00 (CET)
The appropriate mix of incentives, profits and taxes will be essential in moving green hydrogen projects into production. As governments enter into long-term contracts with project developers and may still be developing regulation governing green hydrogen projects, it will be important to ensure that contracts signed now containing fiscal terms are set out in ways that both incentivize investments and provide long-term economic benefits for host governments. Governments will need to analyse and model how fiscal decisions made today impact investments and government revenues from green hydrogen in the future.
This webinar will considers what mix of incentives, profits and taxes will maximize the production of green hydrogen while also providing fair prices to the consumers of the power produced by the green hydrogen. It will focus on host country considerations and draw lessons from the oil, gas and mining industries where possible.
Presentations by: John Bush, Programme Director for Tax & Fiscal Reform, International Lawyers Project and Don Hubert, President, Resources for Development (R4D)
Title: How Green Hydrogen can drive the Sustainable Development Goals
Date: Wednesday, 10th May 2023
Time: 15:00-16:00 (CET)
Green hydrogen projects have significant potential to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), given that they contribute to decarbonizing hard- to- abate sectors and provide local access to new sources of clean electricity, fresh water, ammonia-based fertilizer; new employment and economic development opportunities; and other co-benefits.
As regulations are evolving and being established as we speak, the extent to which a particular green hydrogen project being developed achieves any of the SDGs will turn in large part on project-specific contractual terms negotiated among the relevant parties, including the host country, project developers, financing partners, offtakers, and engineering and procurement contractors, various development agencies, and most especially host communities.
This webinar will consider innovative ways in which the SDGs can be furthered by green hydrogen projects and the role of private capital, development finance institutions and bilateral development support to achieve SDGs.
Presentation by:
- Charlie Howland, Partner and Environmental Chair, Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle
- Audrey Hackett, ESG Director, CWP
- Nadege Hopman, Deputy Head of Regional Representation, Pretoria, European Investment Bank
- Sun-Min Kim, Country Cooperations Algeria & India, GIZ/PtX Hub
Title: Dispute Resolution
Date: Wednesday, 17th May 2023
Time: 11:00-12:00 pm CET
It is common for disputes to arise between parties to a contract. This may be in relation to minor operational issues, or it may relate to much larger issues, such as termination of the contract, allegations of misrepresentation or disputes as to which party bears the cost or risk of a certain event. Dispute resolution clauses can cover both contractual or non-contractual disputes.
A well-drafted dispute resolution clause helps disputes to be resolved in a timely and efficient way. It is likely to be important to potential investors in a project that a robust dispute resolution clause forms part of a contract, as this will help the investors have confidence that there is a mechanism in place to help the parties resolve any disputes which arise.
Given the complexity and diversity of the possible disputes, there is no 'one size fits all' approach to dispute resolution which can be applied to all contracts across the green hydrogen value chain. In many circumstances, an arbitration clause will be appropriate, potentially combined with expert determination for certain issues identified in advance and compulsory negotiation or mediation at the preliminary stage.
Presentation by: Louise Barber, Senior Associate, Herbert Smith Freehills
Title: Infrastructure access and common use to scale up the green hydrogen market
Date: TBC
Time: TBC
Infrastructure for green hydrogen will be critical to facilitate the production of green hydrogen using renewable energy as well as processing, storing and transporting green hydrogen and its derivatives to end users. Lenders and project developers will need assurances that necessary infrastructure is in place for both the delivery of the inputs required to produce hydrogen and the storage and transport of hydrogen to the project’s customers. Lessons learned from the oil, gas and mining industries is that it is important to get shared infrastructure agreements and access right from the outset, as it is harder and costlier to renegotiate access rights after a project has been developed.
The webinar will consider regulatory initiatives to ensure that project developers and consumers can access and use necessary infrastructure. Based on the guidance it will discuss how to achieve access for green hydrogen to existing and operating natural gas infrastructure; how to regulate third party access to hydrogen infrastructure being built or planned for construction; and network planning and cooperation in the siting and construction of new hydrogen projects.
Presentation by: Simon Tysoe, Partner, Latham & Watkins and Nina Bowyer, Managing Partner, Herbert Smith Freehills