Recently, China's hydrogen energy industry policies continued to accelerate implementation in H1 of this year. At the national level, policy measures were intensively introduced across multiple areas, including strategic positioning, application promotion, infrastructure, standards development, financial support, and talent cultivation, building a more comprehensive policy system for the high-quality development of the hydrogen energy industry during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The industry has entered a new stage of coordinated policy advancement.
In terms of top-level design, in March this year, the Two Sessions reviewed and approved the Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China, which incorporated hydrogen energy, along with biomanufacturing and nuclear fusion, into key future industries for cultivation. It proposed promoting the innovative development of hydrogen energy and included green hydrogen in the 109 major engineering projects. The Government Work Report released in the same month explicitly identified hydrogen energy as a new growth driver for the first time, further highlighting its important position in the national strategy.
Regarding industrial application, China continued to promote hydrogen energy demonstration and large-scale development. The Guide for the Construction and Application of Industrial Green Microgrids (2026–2030) released in January proposed clean and low-carbon hydrogen production and utilization as a key development direction, promoting efficient water electrolysis for hydrogen production, fuel cell power generation, and coordinated wind and solar power, hydrogen, and energy storage applications to achieve comprehensive energy utilization in industrial parks.
Subsequently, relevant authorities issued a notice on carrying out pilot work for the comprehensive application of hydrogen energy, planning to select pilot cities through an open competition mechanism. The initiative supports demonstration applications in sectors such as transportation, metallurgy, chemicals, ports, and shipping, and sets development targets including the continuous reduction of green hydrogen production costs and further increases in the scale of fuel cell vehicles by 2030.
Policies in the transportation sector were advanced simultaneously. In June, the Ministry of Transport, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and nine other departments jointly issued an implementation plan to promote the large-scale application of new energy heavy-duty trucks. The plan proposes improving the construction of hydrogen refueling stations and hydrogen fuel supply networks, accelerating the promotion and application of new energy freight vehicles, and focusing on supporting transport scenarios such as ports and mines to accelerate the commercial development of hydrogen-powered heavy-duty trucks.
Infrastructure development and the standards system also saw further improvements. Relevant national authorities released the 15th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of a New Energy System, proposing that the scale of hydrogen production from renewable energy nationwide reach approximately 2 million mt by 2030, and coordinating efforts to advance the construction of hydrogen transmission pipelines, storage and transportation networks, and the entire value chain infrastructure for green hydrogen production, storage, transmission, and utilization. At the same time, the 2026 Guidelines for the Establishment of Energy Industry Standard Plans for the first time made new-type energy storage and hydrogen energy key areas for project initiation, promoting the continuous improvement of standards for key segments such as hydrogen production, storage and transportation, refueling, and fuel cells.
To strengthen guarantees for industrial development, capital market and talent policies were simultaneously reinforced. The Shanghai Stock Exchange revised relevant rules for the STAR Market, adding a hydrogen energy classification in the new energy sector to provide support for the financing and development of hydrogen energy technology enterprises. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released relevant occupational information, incorporating occupations such as water electrolysis hydrogen production workers into the green occupation category, further improving the industrial talent cultivation system.
In addition, the NDRC and the National Energy Administration jointly issued a policy related to renewable energy consumption, incorporating hydrogen energy consumption into the assessment scope for renewable energy targets and supporting the promotion and application of green hydrogen in fossil energy substitution, providing policy guarantees for the market-based consumption of green hydrogen.
Overall, in H1 of this year, China's hydrogen energy industry policies have formed a policy framework covering multiple aspects, including strategic planning, demonstration applications, infrastructure, standards systems, capital support, talent cultivation, and market mechanisms. As targets for renewable hydrogen production, fuel cell vehicles, and green hydrogen applications continue to advance, the hydrogen energy industry is gradually moving from a policy-driven stage toward a market-based development stage, laying a solid foundation for the sector's large-scale development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
