Responding to the news that the government has axed plans for a ‘hydrogen village’, but will invest £2bn in green hydrogen over the next 15 years, Greenpeace UK’s climate campaigner, Georgia Whitaker, said:

“The government has finally realised there are deep flaws in using hydrogen for home heating – we now need them to fully embrace heat pumps as the only way forward. The push for hydrogen boilers was just a blatant attempt by the fossil fuel industry to keep us hooked on gas – which hydrogen is often made from.

“Green hydrogen – produced from renewable energy – is genuinely low carbon and will play a vital role in cutting emissions from industries, like steel and glass production, so the investment announced today is extremely welcome.

“But heat pumps are the only sensible option for home heating. They’re already used extensively across Europe, in all manner of homes and climates. So it’s no surprise that attempts to pay people to be guinea pigs in this weird hydrogen trial backfired. Now we just need the government to ramp up investment to make sure that the phase out of polluting gas boilers happens as swiftly and fairly as possible.”