Regulatory Options for a Green Hydrogen Transformation in the Chemical Industry

The project examines incentive conditions and barriers in the chemical industry for producing and using green hydrogen as part of the transformation strategy toward climate neutrality. To enable a rapid market ramp-up, new plants need to be built, existing ones converted, and the necessary permits under industrial plant law obtained. The project develops and tests alternative design options for approval processes through qualitative interviews, experiments, and simulation games. In the latter, actors from industry, (ministerial) administration, expert assessors, and civil society interact. Based on an empirical research design and an interdisciplinary institutional analysis, the project develops design options that accelerate the transformation process toward climate-neutral hydrogen use without lowering protection standards. Furthermore, the project demonstrates how simulation games and experiments can be applied in prospective regulatory impact assessments. A particular focus was placed on analyzing the newly introduced Carbon Contracts for Difference (Klimaschutzverträge).