Ilissa Ocko & Tianyi Sun, Environmental Defense Fund
13 March 2024
Improving hydrogen climate impact assessments by including overlooked factors
With rising interest in ‘clean’ hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels, it is important to assess the potential climate benefits of hydrogen systems by accounting for all climate warming emissions and impacts over time. Scientists at EDF recently published a life cycle assessment that shows how the climate impacts of hydrogen deployment can be far greater than expected when including often overlooked factors in the calculation, such as the warming effects of hydrogen emissions, observed methane emissions intensities, and near-term timescales – ultimately lowering the perceived climate benefits of hydrogen alternatives relative to fossil fuel technologies. Relatedly, EDF is partnering with academic and industry partners to launch a measurement campaign in the coming months to quantify hydrogen emissions rates at existing infrastructure across the value chain. Here, Dr. Tianyi Sun and Dr. Ilissa Ocko will discuss how to improve climate impact assessments to ensure hydrogen is an effective decarbonization tool and will provide an overview of the upcoming measurement campaign.
Dr. Ilissa Ocko is a Senior Climate Scientist and Barbra Streisand Chair of Environmental Studies at the Environmental Defense Fund, where she leads the Climate Science Team in pursuing research on the climate benefits of various climate change mitigation strategies, both during our lifetimes and for generations to come. She works with economists, lawyers, and policy and business experts to translate the science into effective actions to curb the climate crisis. Dr. Ockoearned a Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from Princeton University and an undergraduate degree in Earth System Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan. She also holds a certificate in Environmental Policy from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
Dr. Tianyi Sun is a Climate Scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, where her research has primarily focused on the climate impacts of short-lived climate forcers, such as methane and hydrogen. She explores how their emissions and mitigation affect different aspects of the climate system, as well as their role in net zero emissions pathways. Dr. Sun has also been leading EDF’s work on hydrogen emissions measurements. She holds a Ph.D. in Climate Dynamics from the University of Texas at Austin and did her undergraduate studies in Atmospheric Sciences at Nanjing University, China.