Accelerating hydrogen in Southeast Asia: From promise to practical pathways

This webinar took place on 9 December 2025.

A recording of the session and the slides are now available.

As Southeast Asia scales up its clean energy ambitions, low-carbon hydrogen is increasingly viewed as a strategic option to decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors, enhance energy security, and support emerging clean technology industries. Despite strong interest and multiple national roadmaps, deployment remains slow, with high costs, limited demand visibility, and financing hurdles constraining project development.

In this session, the International Energy Agency (IEA) outlined practical, near-term actions that governments and industry stakeholders can take to accelerate hydrogen adoption in Southeast Asia. The presentation examined the role of renewable deployment in improving project economics, the importance of certification schemes for emerging global trade, and how pilot projects and targeted large-scale applications can help build market confidence.

Dr Herib Blanco, lead author of the Global Hydrogen Review 2025 Southeast Asia chapter, examined financing challenges specific to hydrogen, including high cost of capital, uncertainty in revenue streams, and the need for blended finance structures. He also shared lessons from international best practices and early projects.

To complement the analytical perspective, Alex Tancock, CEO of InterContinental Energy, joined the session to share industry reflections on the report’s findings. InterContinental Energy is a global leader in large-scale green hydrogen development and has been at the forefront of the sector for more than a decade. Alex offered insights from the vantage point of a company operating at the nexus of policy, low-carbon hydrogen demand, and technology readiness, and participated in the Q&A discussion.

Participants gained insights into:

• how renewable deployment can improve competitiveness and create spillover benefits for hydrogen

• priority applications that can anchor early demand and support scale-up

• the value of pilot deployments across diverse regions and use-cases

• emerging approaches to certification of hydrogen and its derivatives

• policy and financial instruments to lower WACC and unlock investment

• opportunities for international cooperation to accelerate market development

The session concluded with a Q&A with questions from participants.