HyCymru

Wales' heavy industrial base — particularly steel production at Port Talbot and chemical manufacturing — faces existential pressure from decarbonisation requirements. Hydrogen is seen as a key transition fuel that could enable these industries to decarbonise without closure, but a coherent Welsh hydrogen strategy requires coordination across devolved and reserved powers.

HyCymru's advocacy for a national hydrogen strategy connects directly to the devolution debate through the Tata Steel crisis at Port Talbot. The planned closure of Port Talbot's blast furnaces — a UK Government decision made with minimal Welsh Government input — demonstrated the consequences of energy and industrial policy remaining reserved to Westminster while their impacts are felt most acutely in Wales. HyCymru argues that a Welsh hydrogen strategy is essential to prevent deindustrialisation, but implementing one effectively requires powers that currently sit across the devolved-reserved boundary: energy policy is reserved, but economic development is devolved; skills and education are devolved, but the industrial strategy framework is UK-wide. This policy complexity makes hydrogen a case study in the limitations of the current devolution settlement and a practical argument for either further devolution or more effective intergovernmental coordination.