7. National policy

The French government's interest in hydrogen as an energy carrier dates back to the mid-1990s. However, the technological difficulties encountered in manufacturing hydrogen using various thermochemical processes, the method chosen at the time, led to its gradual abandonment, both in France and in the USA and Japan, where it was also being studied for the same reasons. In the early 1990s, interest in hydrogen was revived by the VPE (Véhicules Propres et Économes) program launched by the French government in conjunction with carmakers PSA and Renault, as well as the CEA (Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique), CNRS, IFPEN and the University. Another step was taken with the arrival of Nicolas Hulot in government in 2017 to implement the energy transition. Believing that hydrogen, thanks to its energy assets, was going to become indispensable to the ecological transition, in June 2018 he presented...