U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, in collaboration with the governments of Japan and the United Kingdom, announced the winners of the 2022 H2 Twin Cities program today as part of COP27 activities in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, to reinforce global commitment to combat climate change through the mobilization of clean and sustainable energy. H2 Twin Cities is a program under the Clean Energy Ministerial Clean Hydrogen Initiative (CEM H2I) to accelerate hydrogen progress by incentivizing the pairing of communities around the world to collaborate, share ideas, and learn from each other,  particularly at the city and municipality level. These community-level partnerships between cities help connect activities where hydrogen and fuel cell technologies have energy, environmental, and economic benefits.

The winners of the H2 Twin Cities 2022 initiative are:

• H2 – TRANS – PACIFIC team: The U.S. city of Lancaster, California, and Namie Town in Japan will serve as mentors to Hawai’i County, Hawaii, in this H2 Twin Mentor-Mentee Cities partnership. Mentors have pledged to share best practices and strategies with the mentee to collectively accelerate progress in hydrogen and fuel cells. Their activities will support goals of carbon neutrality by 2035 and address mutual priorities to develop a skilled workforce, and to strengthen diversity, equity and inclusion, and environmental justice practices as they transition to a clean energy future. The resources and opportunities resulting from this H2 Twin Cities collaboration will focus on the impact clean hydrogen solutions can have on citizens' lives, regional infrastructure, and the environment.
• Hydrogen is here! team: Aberdeen, United Kingdom, and Kobe, Japan, will partner as H2 Twin Sibling Cities to promote clean hydrogen growth opportunities to maximize local air quality, climate change, and supply chain benefits, and transition from traditional natural gas and nuclear power to renewable energy. Both cities have committed to exchange knowledge and resources to better understand how clean hydrogen can benefit their transportation, ports, heat production, and electricity sectors equitably. Through their H2 Twin Cities collaboration, Aberdeen and Kobe will also facilitate joint research between universities and students in both cities to support mutual workforce development priorities. 

Learn more about the H2 Twin Cities 2022 winners and stay tuned for the launch of a new H2 Twin Cities round in 2023, which will focus on mentor-mentee partnerships to encourage participation from emerging economies.