The recently launched Building Blocks for Hydrogen Hubs report, unveiled during New York Climate Week 2025, underscores hydrogen’s potential to catalyse deep industrial emissions reductions. It is the result of extensive cross sector collaboration under the Alliance for Industry Decarbonization, known as AFID. Poly Consulting is proud to have contributed alongside distinguished partners, including IRENA, UNIDO, Snam, Eni, Roland Berger, ERM, GreenEarthX, and the Technology Innovation Institute.

This coalition brought together expertise in policy, industry, finance, and technology to deliver a framework that can guide governments, investors, and businesses in building the hydrogen ecosystems of tomorrow. The report is publicly available on the Alliance for Industry Decarbonization platform and is intended as a practical guide that stakeholders can apply in diverse contexts, not a theoretical exercise. Our involvement reflects our commitment to helping clients navigate the complexities of the energy transition with clear, actionable insights.

Hydrogen hubs are more than individual projects. They represent integrated ecosystems that bring together production facilities, distribution infrastructure, and end use markets. By clustering these elements within a region, hubs create synergies that lower costs, foster innovation, and build market confidence. Regional concentration also helps align workforce development, supplier networks, and research institutions with long term decarbonisation objectives.

Success, however, is not guaranteed. For hubs to thrive, they must be supported by enabling policies, secure long term demand, and carefully designed governance models. The report highlights global examples where hubs have taken root, from the North Sea basin in Europe to emerging projects in Asia and North America. These case studies reveal that hydrogen hubs function best when they link supply with demand through infrastructure like pipelines, ports, and storage facilities. In this way, hubs become catalysts for economic growth and innovation, creating industrial ecosystems that both decarbonise existing activities and attract new investments.

The AFID report identifies a series of enablers that are critical for the deployment of hydrogen hubs. These span technical, financial, policy, and social dimensions. On the technical front, access to abundant renewable energy is non negotiable. Countries and regions with strong solar and wind resources are particularly well positioned to become hydrogen exporters. Grid integration, electrolyser availability, and standards for purity and safety are also essential to the reliability of supply.

Policy frameworks are equally vital, since they provide certainty to investors through subsidies, guarantees, clear permitting, and harmonised standards. Financial innovation is another key enabler. Hydrogen projects are capital intensive, which means they require long duration financing structures that can support infrastructure build out before revenues materialise. Innovative public private partnerships can help de risk these investments and ensure projects remain bankable. The report also emphasises the importance of social enablers. Workforce development, community engagement, and environmental safeguards are all essential to ensuring that hydrogen hubs create equitable opportunities and avoid negative externalities. Building a hydrogen economy is not only about molecules, it is about people, places, and shared prosperity.

Among the most compelling contributions of the report is its case study of the Mediterranean Hydrogen Hub. The region offers a unique opportunity, given its proximity to Europe, abundance of renewable resources in North Africa, and existing infrastructure links across the Mediterranean Sea. The case study outlines how solar and wind power in countries like Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia can be harnessed to produce renewable hydrogen at competitive costs. Through cross border infrastructure projects such as the SoutH2 Corridor, this hydrogen can be exported to European markets where demand is rapidly accelerating.

The study also underscores the challenges that must be addressed to ensure balanced outcomes. Export ambitions need to be aligned with the need for local decarbonisation. North African economies require clean energy to fuel their own industries and support domestic growth. Governance and regulatory coordination between producer and consumer countries will be critical, as will ensuring an equitable distribution of benefits between exporting and importing regions. Thoughtful design can enable export pipelines, domestic industrial switching, and new investments in manufacturing to advance together.

Looking forward, the pathway to scaling hydrogen hubs worldwide is both urgent and achievable. The AFID report makes clear that hubs should be designed not only for export markets but also to deliver domestic value. This includes creating jobs, stimulating local industries, and supporting equitable growth. Governments have a central role to play by creating stable policy frameworks, de risking investments, and ensuring regulatory harmonisation across borders. Clear targets, predictable tendering, and reliable certification can signal demand and crowd in private capital.

Industry, meanwhile, must continue to innovate in technology and supply chain management, driving down costs and improving efficiency. Collaboration across electrolyser manufacturing, shipping, ammonia and methanol value chains, and industrial offtakers can accelerate learning and standardisation. The global momentum behind hydrogen is undeniable. With coordinated action, hubs can become the building blocks of a new energy system that is clean, resilient, and inclusive. As the report demonstrates, success will require partnerships across borders and sectors, with a shared commitment to accelerating the energy transition.

For policymakers, the near term priorities include establishing clear strategies, aligning funding mechanisms, and simplifying permitting. Transparent criteria for project selection, access to offtake contracts, and interoperable standards will reduce risk for early movers. For investors and lenders, diversified portfolios that combine production, midstream, and end use assets can balance exposure and improve bankability. Blended finance instruments, guarantees, and transition oriented taxonomies can further support capital mobilisation.

For industry leaders, building credible demand is crucial. Long term offtake agreements, joint ventures that bridge production and consumption, and consortia that pool demand across clusters can all help. Workforce upskilling, supplier readiness, and community engagement should be embedded from the start. Finally, for civil society and local communities, participation in planning processes can shape fair outcomes and secure the social licence to operate. By aligning these actors, hydrogen hubs can deliver climate benefits and broad based prosperity together.

The Building Blocks for Hydrogen Hubs report is available through the Alliance for Industry Decarbonization. Readers can explore detailed frameworks, case studies, and implementation tools, including the Mediterranean hub analysis and guidance on governance models. The work reflects contributions from a diverse set of partners who brought policy insight, technical expertise, and implementation experience.

Poly Consulting’s involvement reflects our commitment to supporting clients and partners across the energy transition. Through this collaboration, we have helped ensure that the report serves as a practical guide, offering actionable insights that stakeholders can apply in real market contexts. By focusing on people, places, and robust partnerships, hydrogen hubs can move from vision to reality and contribute meaningfully to a net zero future. For access to the full report, visit the Alliance for Industry Decarbonization platform.