The Bosch Tech Compass 2023 surveyed people around the how to take the temperature on feelings and public perception towards technology. A headline figure of the report was that 83% of respondents think that future technology will play a key role in combating climate change, up from 76% from the 2022 survey.

Additionally, the study found that 33% of people globally believe hydrogen/fuel cells will make a ‘particularly positive’ contribution to society, beaten only by biotechnology and climate engineering with 37% and 36% respectively.

However, it hasn’t been pure support for hydrogen according to Bosch’s study. When asked, “which technologies do you think are the biggest threat to society?” 6% globally said hydrogen/fuel cells.

German respondents ranked hydrogen and fuel cells as their top technologies that they believe will make a positive contribution to society, with 45% of respondents backing it.

Germany was at the forefront of the European hydrogen charge throughout 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, threatening energy security. In 2021, Russia accounted for 55% of the country’s gas imports, which by the end of June 2022 had declined to 26%.

Despite hydrogen being unlikely to play a major role in securing the country’s energy supplies in the short-term, numerous deals and projects look set to see the energy carrier become widely introduced into its energy supply in the mid- to long-term.

Most notably, in August (2022), the Canada-Germany Hydrogen Alliance was launched, with hopes of exporting Canadian hydrogen to the country by 2025.

Read more: Canada-Germany Hydrogen Alliance targets first exports by 2025

Additionally, in November 2022, industrial gas major Air Products with Mabanaft announced intentioned to build Germany’s ‘first’ large-scale green energy import terminal in the Port of Hamburg to provide the country with hydrogen.

Read more: Air Products, Mabanaft unveil plans large-scale green hydrogen imports at Port of Hamburg, Germany

UK respondents also backed hydrogen and fuel cells strongly, coming as their second most favoured technology with 44% believing it would make a positive impact, behind climate engineering at 51%.

2022 came as a year of instability for the UK. Despite the Government announcement in April that its low-carbon hydrogen production capacity target had been doubled from 5GW to 10GW, aside from political upheaval, there have been calls for corners of the industry for more policy support for hydrogen.

From calls to mandate hydrogen-ready boilers, requests for storage and transportation business models, to others bringing the entire hydrogen strategy into question, there remains work to be done for hydrogen in the UK.

Read more: Report calls UK hydrogen ambitions into question

Despite the apparent instability and calls for more movement, there have been numerous Government back funding programmes to see hydrogen-based technologies develop, as well as major announcements from companies such as bp, which submitted a bid for its proposed large-scale green hydrogen production facility in Teesside.

Read more: bp submits bid for major green hydrogen production facility to UK Government

Commenting on the report, Vonjy Rajakoba, Managing Director of Bosch UK, said, “In the fight against climate change, technology will play a leading role and businesses are waking up to this. The green tech market is growing by 8% annually, and in 2022, climate tech funding represented more than a quarter of every venture dollar invested, according to PwC’s recent Climate Tech report.”

Rajakoba added, “Whilst this is hugely promising, significant investment is needed, and it is clear that the public expectation of companies is that organisations should do more for the environment. Some investments will generate short-term return, others will need a longer time to bear fruit, but we’re convinced that it is both responsible and makes business sense to make them.”