Today, Deputy Secretary David Turk announced the launch of H2 Twin Cities as part of COP26 activities in Glasgow, U.K. to reinforce American commitment to combat climate change. H2 Twin Cities is an initiative under the Clean Energy Ministerial to accelerate hydrogen deployments by pairing communities around the world to collaborate, share ideas, learn from each other, and accelerate progress, particularly at the city and municipality level. Through H2 Twin Cities, global partnerships will be created among paired cities and communities to form a larger community of hydrogen best practices, increase collaboration, and broaden the reach of hydrogen deployment to reduce global emissions.

“As incubators of new ideas and technologies, cities are a key part of the effort to jumpstart innovation and foster solutions to fight the climate crisis.” said Deputy Secretary David Turk. “H2 Twin Cities will help us do just that by connecting cities and communities around the world to share ideas, accelerate innovation, and deploy clean hydrogen at scale.” 

Currently, the number of communities and regions around the world deploying hydrogen and fuel cell technologies at scale is limited. Sharing best practices and lessons learned across cities and communities around the world has the potential to accelerate and increase technology deployment and adoption worldwide. These new hydrogen-based partnerships can help build strong international ties, and strengthen global commitment to environmental justice, social equity, and increase clean energy jobs.  

Under H2 Twin Cities, any city in any country with a demonstrated commitment to advancing hydrogen and fuel cell technology can express interest to partner and connect with another city to apply for funding as one of the following two H2 Twin Cities partnerships: 

  • Sibling Cities: Pairings of cities from different countries that are already at the forefront of deploying hydrogen and fuel cell technologies with extensive experience and success in end-use acceptance, building infrastructure, and community awareness.
  • Mentor-Mentee Cities: Pairings of cities from different countries that are at significantly different levels of hydrogen implementation. The Mentor city would share lessons learned and best practices with the Mentee city, which is committed to future deployment of hydrogen technologies.

Learn more about H2 Twin Cities and submit your interest to pair up by December 29, 2021.