Examine the potential and the challenges of the National Green Hydrogen Mission in decarbonising India's hard-to-abate sectors.

Hard-to-abate sectors like fertiliser, refining, steel and shipping need hydrogen as a raw material or need very high heat. Renewable electricity alone cannot replace these uses. The National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM), launched in 2023 with an outlay of ₹19,744 crore, targets at least 5 MMT of green hydrogen a year by 2030 [1][2]. Its potential is large, but delivery so far is lagging.

Potential

• Replacing raw materials: today, fertiliser and petrochemical plants make their hydrogen from natural gas. Green hydrogen can replace it, cut gas imports and avoid nearly 50 MMT of greenhouse-gas emissions a year [1].
• Wider reach: the Mission funds pilot projects in steel, heavy-duty transport and shipping, so it covers more than fertiliser [1].
• Support for producers and buyers: SIGHT (₹17,490 crore) pays incentives for making electrolysers in India and for producing green hydrogen [1]. Contracts have been signed to supply 6.7 lakh MTPA of green ammonia to 11 fertiliser units [2].
• Economic gains: the Mission expects ₹8 lakh crore of investment and over 6 lakh jobs, and aims to make India an export hub [1].

Challenges

• Very little capacity is running: only about 8,000 TPA was commissioned by February 2026. That is less than 0.2% of the target [3].
• High cost: refinery tenders priced green hydrogen at ₹387–397/kg (including GST). Renewable power makes up 50–70% of production cost, according to a World Bank estimate [3].
• Most output is for export: 23 purchase contracts cover about 5.5 lakh MTPA, roughly 11% of the target. Over 70% of that is meant for export [2], so Indian industry gets less of the emissions benefit.
• Power and grid limits: the target needs about 125 GW of new renewable capacity [1]. But the intra-state Green Energy Corridor had connected only 29 GW of its 43 GW target to the grid by June 2026 [4].
• Early stage in steel and shipping: these sectors are still at the pilot stage [1].

Overall, the NGHM has created domestic buyers and discovered real prices, but production at scale has not yet followed. The next steps should be:

• extend SIGHT-style purchase support from fertiliser to refineries and steel;
• add renewable capacity, storage and transmission together, so that cheap round-the-clock power brings costs down.

Done well, the Mission could make India's industrial growth low-carbon, in line with SDG-7 (clean energy) and SDG-13 (climate action) and the net-zero 2070 goal.