Reasons for Proposal
The hydrogen economy provides a system that can adapt to climate change and realize carbon neutrality by allowing a great expansion of power generation with intermittent renewables such as solar and wind.
Furthermore, the Act on the Promotion of Hydrogen Economy and the Management of Hydrogen Safety, which established a basis to promote the hydrogen economy and successfully helped enterprises and universities to invest actively in and conduct R&D on technology, was legislated for the first time in the world.
The direction of the hydrogen economy is to contribute to carbon neutrality by preventing the emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases in the hydrogen production phase, and it is required to focus on promoting the hydrogen economy in the current Act on producing and disseminating clean hydrogen.
To do so, this Act aims to introduce a clean hydrogen certification system and require hydrogen fuel supply facility operators to supply a certain percentage of certified clean hydrogen to promote the dissemination of clean hydrogen in the hydrogen sector, and build a clean hydrogen dissemination system that requires operators of electricity sales businesses in the power sector to purchase a certain amount of power generated by clean hydrogen in an effort to continue to improve the current Act and thereby contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving carbon neutrality.
Details
A. Define clean hydrogen and clean hydrogen power generation (Article 2, paragraphs 10 and 11 newly inserted).
B. Specify the development, production, and dissemination of clean hydrogen in the responsibilities of the central and local governments (Article 3, paragraph 1).
C. Define the development, production, and dissemination of clean hydrogen and transition to the hydrogen economy to realize carbon neutrality in the industrial sector in the hydrogen economy implementation master plan (Article 5, paragraph 2, subparagraphs 6-2 and 6-3 newly inserted).
D. Designate clean hydrogen certification agencies to perform clean hydrogen certification, and require clean hydrogen certification agencies to document and store clean hydrogen certification records and conduct regular inspection on clean hydrogen manufacturing facilities, etc. certified by clean hydrogen certification agencies (Article 25-2 newly inserted).
E. Require clean hydrogen producers, etc. to receive clean hydrogen certification and producers with clean hydrogen certification to issue clean hydrogen sale certificates to purchasers (Article 25-3 newly inserted).
F. Allow the cancellation of clean hydrogen certification or order the suspension or improvement of clean hydrogen certificate issuance when clean hydrogen certification standards are no longer met after receiving clean hydrogen certification (Article 25-4 newly inserted).
G. Allow the cancellation of the designation of clean hydrogen certification agencies or order the suspension of operations for receiving the designation falsely or by some other unfair method or failing to perform clean hydrogen certification without a justifiable reason, and impose penalty surcharges instead of operations suspension in the event that suspension may cause severe inconveniences to users (Articles 25-5 and 25-6 newly inserted).
H. Make it mandatory to purchase a certain amount of clean hydrogen sold or used for hydrogen fuel supply facility operators to promote the dissemination of clean hydrogen, and report clean hydrogen sales/use performance to the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy to ensure the fulfillment of obligations (Article 25-7 newly inserted).
I. Require the operators of electric sales businesses to purchase a certain amount of power generated by clean hydrogen to promote clean hydrogen power generation, determine and notify obligated purchase amounts after review by the Hydrogen Economy Committee by considering the status of clean hydrogen power generation facilities and the power supply and demand master plan, and define operating rules for clean hydrogen power transactions (Article 25-8 newly inserted).
J. Impose and collect penalty surcharges from obligated sellers, users, and purchasers for failing to meet obligated sale, use, or purchase amounts (Article 25-9 newly inserted).
K. Consider employees in clean hydrogen certification agencies to be public officials when applying penalties (Article 57, subparagraph 4-2 newly inserted).
L. Insert new penalties for those who receive certification falsely or by unfair methods and those who certify clean hydrogen without being designated as clean hydrogen certification agencies (Article 59, paragraph 1).
