Cities leading hydrogen energy development: the pledges and strategies of 39 Chinese cities

Hydrogen energy from renewables has the potential to address climate challenges, and technological advancements are vital for driving this energy transition. Globally, an increasing number of cities are actively adopting hydrogen strategies. The literature on the urban sustainability transition primarily focuses on policy innovations for technology adoption, while the role of cities in enabling technological innovation is underexplored. Here, we address this gap by analyzing 122 policy documents from 39 Chinese cities with hydrogen plans by using qualitative content analysis methods. The findings reveal myriad and critical roles of cities in fostering technological innovations in an emergent hydrogen economy via targeted policy support and investment in desired technologies. By moving ahead of the national government, these early movers play a critical role in creating early momentum and laying the foundation for future scale transition. Our findings also point to a clear need for these bottom-up initiatives to be better guided and channeled toward clean hydrogen development, as the lack of upper-level policy guidance can lead to diversified priorities and outcomes. Our findings call for renewed research and policy attention to the proactive role of cities in technological innovation and the sustainability transition and they stress the importance of engaging cities in hydrogen economy development nationally and internationally.