The British pop singer, Ed Sheeran, has been hitting the headlines in the UK for a couple of reasons in the last few weeks. It was not only his awkward interruption of a post-match interview with Manchester United’s new manager, Ruben Amorim, that has been criticised by the media, but also his objection to the 40th anniversary edition of Band Aid’s charity Christmas song, ‘Do they know it’s Christmas?’
Sheeran’s vocals were used to create a new blended version of the single for Christmas this year, yet he has insisted that he would have declined participation if he had been asked for permission beforehand. The singer took to Instagram to cite his belief that the song projects dehumanising stereotypes of an Africa dependent on Western support and plagued by drought and poverty. Since making his opinion public, Sheeran has been praised in some quarters and criticised in others, with some perceiving his stance as a misinterpretation of the charity’s message. Over the years, the charity song has helped to raise nearly £150 million to support famine relief, an issue which threatens to become more widespread in the wake of climate change and extreme weather events.
The recent COP29 conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, shed light on the magnitude of the issue of water scarcity and the fact that nearly 50% of the world’s population live in water-stressed conditions.1 In response to this stark reality, the COP29 Presidency introduced the COP29 Declaration on Water for Climate Action, an initiative focused on water-related climate action, including the improvement of water security, availability, quality and sanitation. Hydrogen was also in the spotlight at COP29, with the scale-up of clean hydrogen production being widely discussed, as well as a pledge being made to provide financial and technical support to facilitate the hydrogen industry in developing countries.
Considering the heavy hydrological footprint of hydrogen production and the intensified pressure on the world’s most critical resource, sensible water usage has never been more important in the hydrogen industry. As a critical component in hydrogen production, the industry must put responsible water management at the top of its list of priorities. Blair Garrett of Baltimore Air Coil (BAC) provides valuable insights into the different water consumption profiles of hydrogen production methods and outlines water saving techniques on page 41 of this issue of Global Hydrogen Review. This issue also features an interesting report by Aliaksei Patonia and Martin Lambert from the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, focusing on the hydrogen industry’s outlook in the most water-scarce region of the world, the Middle East and North Africa.
As outlined at COP29, the acceleration of decarbonised hydrogen production is set to continue through 2025 and with responsible growth, the industry should be hitting the headlines for all the right reasons.
