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When the Australian Government released its National Hydrogen Roadmap in 2018, it was following closely behind Japan's 2017 Basic Hydrogen Strategy. Aiming to make hydrogen a key energy source for self-sufficiency in 2050, Japan's ³§³Ù°ù²¹³Ù±ð²µ²âÌýboldly envisions the development of a "hydrogen society" toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases and a carbon-neutral future.

Since then, many other hydrogen initiatives on supranational and national levels have been introduced, including the European Union (2020), Germany (2020), the United States (2021), and India (2021). Sub-national governments like the Malaysian state of Sarawak have also developed similar plans, while South Australia is also seeking to harness its natural advantages to become a national and international supplier of hydrogen.

These supra/sub/national strategies often promise a future of clean, sustainable energy as well as a rapid shift to zero-carbon economies. Getting there, however, requires dealing with complex challenges that transcend national boundaries, including balancing new chains of supply and demand for clean hydrogen energy, slowly undoing and disrupting old models of energy sources, encouraging resource decoupling, as well as promoting international cooperation and expanding healthy interdependence.

How will the unfolding hydrogen economy shape these partners and how will it influence their relations? Can hydrogen's promises of de-carbonisation evolve in the shadow of certain international groupings such as the QUAD which consists of the United States, Australia, India, and Japan? Will the influence of sub-national players, including Australian states such as South Australia or the Malaysian state of Sarawak, reshape national politics if their ambitions are realised?

This symposium seeks to begin discussions and stimulate research into the implications of these national hydrogen strategies for issues of a sustainable global economy, national security, international cooperation, and more broadly, issues of international relations.