Multilateral development banks fall short in safeguarding green hydrogen projects

Study shows that the current guidelines lack hydrogen-specific criteria

Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam

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Multilateral development banks have emerged as major financiers of green hydrogen production in emerging markets and developing countries. However, a new study published in The Journal of Environment & Development finds that their approach to managing environmental and social risks often falls short. Despite the existence of sustainability frameworks, the research shows that critical risks—such as biodiversity loss, water scarcity, and community displacement—are inadequately addressed, calling into question the sector’s ability to deliver on its climate and development promises.

Industrialised countries are largely relying on imports from countries in the Global South to secure their future supply of green hydrogen. Since private financiers often perceive hydrogen projects as highly risky, most projects are currently being financed by multilateral development banks. The mandate of multilateral development banks includes ensuring that these investments contribute to sustainable development in the exporting countries. “Green hydrogen could help developing countries increase export revenues and reduce energy poverty, but only if it is developed fairly. This means, for example, that banks must ensure that projects foster local job creation and capacity development”, says study author Lai Yee Choy of the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS). With her study, she wanted to find out how effectively the banks are delivering on their mandate.

Current policies lack hydrogen-specific criteria

Choy focused on seven green hydrogen projects in developing countries that are financed by multilateral development banks and operate within established environmental and social policy frameworks and have comprehensive, publicly available documentation. Five banks satisfy these criteria: the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Inter American Development Bank.

For her analysis, Choy categorized 20 environmental and social risk areas, such as land use, indigenous rights, and air and water pollution. She then evaluated the effectiveness of current guidelines, including environmental and social standards and project-specific policies, in mitigating these risks. Her key conclusion: Current sustainability policies, originally crafted for conventional energy projects, lack hydrogen‑specific criteria needed to manage its unique water, supply‑chain, emissions and land‑use risks. This leaves a critical policy gap.

Consistent standards reduce uncertainty for borrowers

According to Choy’s analysis, current due diligence tools are well structured and successfully capture many traditional environmental and social risks, yet they are not fully adequate for the emerging, technology specific challenges of green hydrogen projects. “Given the expected expansion of green hydrogen investment, the banks may benefit from developing dedicated environmental and social standards for hydrogen projects, including: risk categories, mitigation requirements, procedural steps with regard to stakeholder engagement, grievance handling and monitoring, and enforcement mechanisms”, says Choy. Consistent standards reduce uncertainty for borrowers, and strengthen risk management for emerging hydrogen technologies.

Choy sees even more need for improvement with regard to economic impacts on local communities in host countries, which currently receive significantly less attention than environmental and social considerations. This oversight risks widening disparities between countries that export and import green hydrogen, calling for a stronger focus on fair access to jobs and resources.

Failure to meet standards should be penalized

The study also finds that the banks tend to prioritize policies that measure or minimize risks, but rarely implement policies that require specific mitigation actions. “This means that the banks usually ask borrowers to measure and try to reduce impacts, but they seldom require them to meet firm, verifiable performance thresholds or to provide reactive compensation and/or offsets for residual impacts —yet those ‘hard’ requirements are exactly what is needed to protect high impact risks”, explains Choy. Although all banks have systems in place for addressing complaints, their guidelines do not specify penalties for failing to meet their own standards, suggesting an enforcement gap. Choy concludes that multilateral development banks should move toward clearer normative commitments and equitable burden-sharing. By closing the governance gaps, the banks can help to maximize the benefits of green hydrogen development for global climate goals and the economic development of both importing and producing countries.

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Journal

The Journal of Environment & Development

DOI

10.1177/10704965261418543 

Method of Research

Content analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Evaluating Multilateral Development Banks’ Environmental and Social Policies for Green Hydrogen Projects: A Content Analysis

Escaping the bubble trap: Plant-inspired 3D electrodes unlock ultra-fast hydrogen production

International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing

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Myriophyllum verticillatum performs photosynthesis underwater, wherein the generated oxygen is transported along the stems and leaf veins to the tip regions through the combined effects of gravity and the leaf bubble membrane, ultimately detaching from the Myriophyllum verticillatum surface.

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Credit: By Zhaolong Wang*, Xiaolong Wang, Mingzhu Xie, Yong Shuai* and Qi Ge*

Chinese scientists have developed a new, highly efficient electrode that rapidly ejects gas bubbles during water electrolysis. The results were striking: the three-dimensional, plant-inspired design yielded up to 172.1% more hydrogen than standard flat electrodes of the same size.

Published in the International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, the system proved capable of running continuously outdoors for a week on solar power.

Hydrogen fuel is considered a vital clean energy source for the future. But producing it by splitting water faces a stubborn physical hurdle: the hydrogen bubbles generated tend to stick to the electrode's surface.

No matter how advanced the catalyst is, these trapped bubbles block the liquid from reaching the reaction sites, creating dead zones that severely stall production. Identical electrodes in a factory electrolyzer will eventually lose efficiency as bubbles accumulate within their structural networks. Scientists know that clearing these blockages is essential, but doing so without disrupting the continuous surface of the electrode has remained incredibly difficult.

One-way street

To solve this, researchers turned to Myriophyllum verticillatum, an aquatic plant that efficiently channels oxygen bubbles to the tips of its leaves. The engineering team replicated this biological trick by combining a wavy and 3D-printed catalytic base with a specialized functional membrane.

Using projection microstereolithography, a high-precision 3D printing technique, they crafted a "Janus" membrane, a material that features a gradient wettability designed to capture and transport gas. When the electrode generates a hydrogen bubble, the membrane acts like a one-way turnstile. It actively grabs the bubble and pulls it through to the collection side in just six milliseconds, instantly exposing the reaction site to fresh water.

Factory ready

The rapid detachment speeds translate directly into massive performance gains. During testing, the 3D electrode achieved a current density eight times higher than common one-dimensional flat electrodes, and 2.5 times greater than that of two-dimensional curved versions at the same voltage. Because the wavy 3D geometry ensures the gas meets almost zero resistance as it detaches, the system collected 53.9% more hydrogen than a 2D electrode and 172.1% more than a flat 1D electrode with the exact same active catalyst area.

To prove the technology can handle industrial demands, the team scaled their design into a 400-square-centimeter panel reactor. Coupled directly to a commercial solar panel and placed outdoors, the system maintained highly stable hydrogen production over a continuous one-week run.

Because this modular, stackable architecture operates efficiently in an open liquid setup without requiring expensive proton exchange membranes, the researchers suggest it provides a highly simplified and durable blueprint for large-scale commercial green hydrogen manufacturing.

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International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing (IJEM, IF: 21.3) is dedicated to publishing the best advanced manufacturing research with extreme dimensions to address both the fundamental scientific challenges and significant engineering needs.

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Journal

International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing

DOI

10.1088/2631-7990/ae3cd4 

Article Title

Bionic stacked 3D engineered functional electrodes for ultra-high efficient hydrogen production

Article Publication Date

11-Mar-2026

New study reveals hidden ocean heatwaves threatening South China Sea ecosystems

Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

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Subsurface MHW impacts on deep ecosystems in the SCS

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Credit: Ning Cao

The South China Sea (SCS), a vital marine region supporting rich biodiversity, productive fisheries, and extensive coral reefs, faces growing threats from marine heatwaves (MHWs). While surface MHWs have drawn attention, subsurface events—intense warming below the ocean surface—during boreal winter have been less studied, yet they can disrupt deeper-dwelling species and ecosystem stability in this semi-enclosed sea.

 

A research team from Guangdong Ocean University has uncovered the key mechanisms driving these winter subsurface MHWs in the SCS, pinpointing the northeastern basin west of the Luzon Strait as a persistent hotspot. Their analysis shows that heat transport from the Kuroshio through the Luzon Strait, combined with swirling mesoscale eddies, significantly amplifies subsurface warming at depths of 70–300 m, making events deeper, more intense, and more frequent than in other parts of the sea. The study has been recently published in the journal Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters.

 

Using long-term high-resolution ocean reanalysis data spanning 1994–2023, the scientists mapped the patterns and vertical structures of these hidden heatwaves. They found that MHW intensity often peaks at a depth of around 130 m, with the strongest zones shifting northeastward as depth increases. In the Luzon Strait–influenced area, subsurface MHWs penetrate deeper and occur more often compared to the broader SCS.

 

Heat budget calculations revealed that ocean currents dominate the process: steady vertical movement brings heat downward, while horizontal flows from the Luzon Strait counteract winter surface cooling. Crucially, anticyclonic eddies—those spinning clockwise with negative vorticity—trigger downwelling, trapping and enhancing warm water below the surface during peak years.

 

“These findings highlight the northeastern South China Sea as a winter MHW hotspot and provide a basis for assessing ecological risks to vulnerable marine ecosystems,” says Dr. Ning Cao, the corresponding author of the study.

 

This local focus is especially relevant for the SCS, where subsurface warming can stress fisheries by affecting fish stocks at greater depths and threaten coral reefs through prolonged thermal stress on deeper layers. By clarifying the role of Luzon Strait inflow and eddies, the work offers valuable insights for improved prediction and monitoring of these events in this economically and ecologically critical region.

 

In the future, the researchers aim to refine models incorporating these dynamics for better forecasting of subsurface MHWs, helping support sustainable management of the SCS’ marine resources amid ongoing climate pressures.

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Journal

Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters

DOI

10.1016/j.aosl.2026.100789 

 

'Unprecedented' wildfires in tropical peatlands during 20th century

A new study reveals an unprecedented increase in wildfires in tropical peatlands during the 20th century.  

University of Exeter

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A new study reveals an unprecedented increase in wildfires in tropical peatlands during the 20th century.  

Peatlands store vast quantities of carbon below the Earth’s surface – more than all the world’s forest biomass combined – but when they catch fire large amounts of the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere.  

Wildfires in tropical regions have been on the rise in recent decades, but the history and characteristics of wildfires in tropical peatlands remain largely unknown.  

Researchers therefore analysed charcoal records preserved in peat deposits across Central and South America, Africa, Southeast Asia and Australasia to reconstruct wildfire activity stretching back more than two millennia.  

Historically, peatland fire patterns are closely linked to climate fluctuations, particularly the length and severity of droughts.  

The researchers found that wildfire activity in tropical peatlands declined for more than 1,000 years, in line with changes in global temperatures and other natural climate variables. 

But in the last century, there was a dramatic increase in the number of wildfires, and regional differences in the results point to human activities being the root cause.  

The increase in wildfires was mainly confined to the Southeast Asia and Australasian regions, where drainage for agriculture, deforestation and land conversion has left peat soils more vulnerable to ignition.  

But in less accessible peatland regions across South America and Africa, there were no such increases, although lead author Dr Yuwan Wang warns these regions could experience more wildfires too as population density increases and commercial agriculture and infrastructure expands.  

“To avoid large carbon emissions that further contribute to global warming we urgently need to protect these carbon-dense ecosystems,” said Dr Wang from the University of Exeter. 

“A reduction in tropical peatland burning could be achieved through peatland conservation, and promoting sustainable resource management and ecosystem restoration, but this requires the collaboration of multiple groups and has to be carried out at sufficiently large scale.” 

“Unprecedented burning in tropical peatlands during the 20th century compared to the previous two millennia” is published in Global Change Biology. 

 

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Journal

Global Change Biology

DOI

10.1111/gcb.70717 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Unprecedented burning in tropical peatlands during the 20th century compared to the previous two millennia

Article Publication Date

17-Mar-2026