Making key manufacturing sectors with the largest transformation challenges climate neutral requires infrastructure. Both hydrogen, likely to be needed for steel and chemicals production, and capturing CO2 emissions, most likely needed for cement, are best transported via pipelines. Pipelines are subject to scale economies: clustered production sites will face lower costs. This working paper shows how access conditions, investment needs and costs may differ across regions. In some regions, local renewable electricity production potential will not be sufficient or too costly to produce the needed hydrogen and will require imports. Good connection to ports is also important as hydrogen or hydrogen-derived products may also be shipped. Road freight plays an important role for the transportation of goods to and from ports. Simulations of carbon taxes illustrate that any costs from decarbonising road transport could impact transport costs in inland production locations the most.
Regional industrial transitions to climate neutrality
Identifying regional access to hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and climate neutral freight
