In Short : At ACEF 2025, the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) highlighted green hydrogen’s transformative role in the clean energy transition. Emphasizing global collaboration, technology transfer, and investment, the session underscored hydrogen’s potential to decarbonize industries and enhance energy security. The dialogue marked a key step toward accelerating sustainable hydrogen development across emerging economies.
In Detail : New Delhi, India – The International Solar Alliance (ISA), in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), convened a high-level deep dive workshop on green hydrogen during the Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) 2025. The session titled, Ecosystem Readiness Assessment for Production and Utilization of Green Hydrogen, focused on accelerating the ecosystem readiness for green hydrogen deployment across ISA Member Countries and showcased strategic tools and frameworks to support scale-up efforts globally.
In his opening remarks, Mr Ashish Khanna, Director General, ISA, reaffirmed the Alliance’s commitment to catalysing the green hydrogen transition across developing economies through data-backed policy support, capacity-building, and project facilitation. He said, “Today, green hydrogen is no longer just an aspiration — it has become a strategic necessity. It offers immense promise to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors like fertilizers, steel, refining, shipping, long-haul transport, and even power generation. But let’s also acknowledge the reality: scaling up green hydrogen is still constrained by significant barriers. These include gaps in policy frameworks, a shortage of affordable long-term financing, infrastructure and supply chain weaknesses, and a lack of robust cost models and demand-supply assessments. At ISA, we are actively working to address these challenges through our flagship ‘Solar for Green Hydrogen’ programme.”
Dr Sujata Gupta, Director, Energy Sector Office, ADB, delivered the Inaugural Address, underlining the need for regional cooperation and integrated frameworks to unlock the full potential of green hydrogen as a decarbonisation vector, especially in hard-to-abate sectors.
At the event, the International Solar Alliance (ISA) launched its flagship report, Framework for the Development of Green Hydrogen Hubs, offering country-specific insights and introducing four critical tools to support policymakers and project developers in effective planning and investment mobilisation. These include the Green Hydrogen Cost Assessment Tool, ISA Project Risk Assessment Tool, Carbon Accounting Tool, and Country Readiness Tool. ISA also released in-depth Green Hydrogen Readiness Assessment studies for ten countries. These initiatives form a part of the ISA-ADB project on Ecosystem Readiness Assessment for the Production and Utilization of Green Hydrogen, led by Dr. Mridula Bharadwaj, Programme Lead for Storage, E-Mobility, and Green Hydrogen (ISA-ADB TA).
In a significant step toward bridging the clean energy storage gap, ISA also launched two important reports:
- Energy Storage Systems for Accelerating Solar Project Deployment in Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States, offering targeted solutions to boost solar adoption in vulnerable geographies; and
- Scaling Solar-integrated Long Duration Energy Storage Technologies (LDES), which outlines a strategic roadmap for developing project pipelines across emerging markets.
A dynamic panel discussion followed, moderated by Mr Tron Andre Svanes, Energy Specialist at ADB, featuring an engaging panel comprising Mr Patrick Aquino, Director of the Energy Utilization Management Bureau, Department of Energy, Philippines; Mr Puneet Kumar, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary for Energy, Government of Kerala, India; Mr Reji Kumar Pillai, President of the India Smart Grid Forum and Chairman of the Global Smart Energy Federation; Mr Mathieu Geze, Director for APAC at HDF Energy; and Mr Emanuele Bianco, Energy Specialist at ADB. The discussion explored the enabling role of policy frameworks, innovative financing mechanisms, demand aggregation, and international collaboration in unlocking scalable hydrogen and energy storage ecosystems.
In his closing remarks, Mr Nar Bahadur Khatiwora, Regional Head for Asia at ISA, emphasised the importance of continued cooperation between governments, development partners, and the private sector to translate readiness into rapid deployment on the ground, ensuring that the promise of green hydrogen becomes a reality for all ISA Member Countries.
These reports form a critical part of ISA’s broader mission to empower the Global South to keep pace with the latest solar and clean energy technologies. By strengthening country readiness and supporting the development of robust, forward-looking policy roadmaps, ISA is enabling its Member Countries to accelerate solar adoption while navigating the complexities of supply chain diversification and the rapid evolution of emerging technologies. These efforts extend beyond green hydrogen and energy storage to encompass a wide spectrum of innovations, including advanced Solar PV, integrated applications such as AgriPV, Floating PV, E-Mobility, Grid Interconnection and Solar Heating & Cooling systems.
ISA’s comprehensive support framework is anchored in technology prioritisation, country-specific implementation strategies, and global analytics and advocacy, ensuring that Member Countries can proactively plan for and adopt transformative solar solutions. Through strategic guidance on technology trends, policy innovations, and diversified supply chains, ISA is helping its Member Countries build resilient, future-ready solar ecosystems. This workshop stands as another significant step in ISA’s journey to advance the green hydrogen and energy storage agendas, reaffirming its resolve to ensure that developing countries are integral to, and not left behind in, the global clean energy transition.
About the International Solar Alliance:
The International Solar Alliance is a global initiative launched in 2015 by India and France at COP21 in Paris. It has 123 Member and Signatory Countries. The Alliance works with governments to improve energy access and security worldwide and promotes solar power as a sustainable transition to a carbon-neutral future. ISA’s mission is to unlock US$1 trillion of investments in solar by 2030 while reducing the cost of the technology and its financing. It promotes the use of solar energy in agriculture, health, transport, and power generation sectors. ISA Member Countries are driving change by enacting policies and regulations, sharing best practices, agreeing on common standards, and mobilising investments. Through this work, ISA has identified, designed and tested new business models for solar projects; supported governments to make their energy legislation and policies solar-friendly through Ease of Doing Solar analytics and advisory; pooled demand for solar technology from different countries; and drove down costs; improved access to finance by reducing the risks and making the sector more attractive to private investment; increased access to solar training, data and insights for solar engineers and energy policymakers.
With its advocacy for solar-powered solutions, ISA aims to transform lives, bring clean, reliable, and affordable energy to communities worldwide, fuel sustainable growth, and improve quality of life. On 6 December 2017, 15 countries signed and ratified the ISA Framework Agreement, making ISA the first international intergovernmental organisation to be headquartered in India. ISA is partnering with multilateral development banks (MDBs), development financial institutions (DFIs), private and public sector organisations, civil society, and other international institutions to deploy cost-effective and transformational solutions through solar energy, especially in the least Developed Countries (LDCs) and the Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
