Maria Sand

The HYway project contributes to the understanding of the climate and environmental risks and co-benefits of a hydrogen economy and aims to advise policymakers and industry on options for addressing those risks.

The development of green ammonia (NH3) has recently gained wide interest due to its potential to decarbonize ammonia production and as a carbon-free solution for energy storage and transportation. Green ammonia production is purely based on renewable energy sources and no carbon is associated with its use, e.g. as a chemical fertilizer, or when ammonia is combusted in an engine. However, the production and use of ammonia come with other climate and environmental challenges due to its alteration of the Earth’s nitrogen cycle.

BUDGET will increase our understanding of the causes to why climate models have such large differences in future Arctic rainfall and summer precipitation in northern Europe. This will be accomplished using satellite data and climate model calculations over the last 40 years. The analyzes will provide knowledge of whether processes related to transport in the atmosphere, evaporation or absorption of radiation are the reasons for different results from the climate models. By using and developing the climate models with most realistic precipitation changes and largescale processes in accordance with ground-based observations and satellite measurements, we can improve estimates of precipitation change and related climate extremes.

The Arctic is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the world, with dramatically decreasing trends in sea-ice and snow cover (AMAP,2017). This ‘Arctic amplification’ of global warming is a feature of human-made climate change, but its causes and consequences are not fully understood.

Hydrogen is often considered a green energy carrier that has the potential to replace oil, but little is known about its environmental and climate impacts. Over the next three years, CICERO will therefore study what these impacts are.