Britain said on Tuesday it would work closely with Germany to underpin the international trade in hydrogen under a new partnership, which the government hopes will support its net zero target and bolster energy security.

The countries will also collaborate to speed up the role of low-carbon hydrogen in their energy mix, the British statement added.

"This agreement will underpin the development of this new fuel not just for our respective countries but also for an international trade that could be transformative in our work towards achieving net zero emissions by 2050," Martin Callanan, a junior minister in the government's energy department, said.

"It is through these partnerships that we can move away from expensive fossil fuels – and in doing so boost our energy security."

Industry and policy-makers are increasingly looking to hydrogen to lower the environmental impact of sectors that have been the hardest to decarbonise and reduce the use of gas, but the investment required and the technical challenges are high.

In April 2022 Britain pledged to double its hydrogen production to up to 10 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, with at least half of it from electrolytic hydrogen.

To that end, the government launched a 240 million pound net zero hydrogen fund to support commercial deployment of new low carbon hydrogen production projects through the 2020s.

Berlin is expected to provide state aid for around 2.5 GW of electrolysis projects this year and the German government has said it would earmark 700 million euros for hydrogen research to optimise production methods.

Germany has a domestic electrolysis capacity target of at least 10 GW by 2030.