Uniper warns of hydrogen safety backlash

Industry and governments must reassure public or risk loss of momentum at critical phase of development, senior executive tells panel

Safety concerns could threaten the growth of the hydrogen economy unless the industry and governments act decisively to reassure the wider public, a senior executive from Germany utility Uniper told a Reuters panel discussion this week. “We as an industry, and the associations and also governments, need to do to make certain that people realise that [hydrogen] is something that we can manage safely,” David Bryson, Uniper’s COO and chief sustainability officer, said at the Energy Transition Europe 2021 event. “Because if we do not do that, at the point that we are gaining momentum in moving this whole topic forward, there is the risk that we get challenged so hard on it, from a misperceptio