The development and deployment of hydrogen fuel as part of global efforts to reach carbon neutrality by mid-century is gaining increased momentum. It is widely acknowledged that various methods for producing “clean hydrogen” will play a central role in the path to net-zero – particularly for hard-to-abate, emission-intensive sectors such as steel and cement production, other industrial processes, maritime shipping, and long-haul trucking. Closely related, the production of “green ammonia” will serve multiple decarbonization ends as a combustion fuel, a liquid storage medium for hydrogen, and as a replacement for fossil-fuel-based ammonia used in fertilizer and other chemicals applications. These transformational opportunities are pushing governments to rapidly develop new policies to incentivize the production and use of clean hydrogen and green ammonia and accelerate their paths to market.
Because hydrogen’s potential to decarbonize emission-intensive sectors is vast, hydrogen technologies will continue to attract significant investment and policy attention, promising myriad new business opportunities, and, inevitably, new areas of disputes.
Investing against this fast-moving background can be challenging, but Covington’s global multidisciplinary hydrogen team is ideally placed to help companies navigate the policy environment, access and execute on the growing range of hydrogen-related business opportunities, and resolve novel areas of disputes.
How We Help Companies
Covington offers a full range of legal services to companies around the world involved in developing, investing in, acquiring, and commercializing technologies that produce and use clean hydrogen.
Our lawyers understand the intricacies of developing and financing a bankable hydrogen project—from project structuring, to offtake and subcontracting negotiations, right up until financial close.
We also represent companies at all stages in the growth cycle—from venture-backed start-ups to major multinationals interested in commercializing emerging technologies in this arena.
And our disputes lawyers bring creative resolutions to novel controversies arising in hydrogen matters across a range of disciplines including commercial arbitration, investor-state disputes, global intellectual property contests, and insurance coverage.
Alongside this legal expertise, Covington’s large network of international public policy lawyers and advisors supports clients in understanding existing frameworks and in influencing the development of hydrogen policy—in particular in the UK, EU, and the U.S.
This combination of legal advisory and regulatory/public policy capability means that Covington can offer a truly holistic offering to clients engaged in the hydrogen sector, where the effective intermeshing of transactional structuring alongside international regulatory and public policy planning is likely to be a critical success factor.
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