Published: 12 February 2026 

The hydrogen sector is entering a new phase. After several years defined by announcements and policy targets, we are now seeing tangible industrial progress: more than EUR 110 billion in capital has been committed globally, over 500 projects have reached Final Investment Decision (FID) or beyond, and the number of projects progressing toward FID continues to grow. Hydrogen is moving from ambition to implementation.

As projects approach construction and operation, the nature of the challenges changes. The key question is no longer whether hydrogen will develop, but how projects can move from development to commercial reality. Investors, lenders and offtakers increasingly require certainty on what is being produced, how it complies with regulation and whether its environmental attributes can be relied upon. In other words, projects need verifiable credibility.

This is why certification has become a central element of market scale-up. CertifHy recently submitted its Low-Carbon Hydrogen Voluntary Scheme extension for electrolytic hydrogen to the European Commission and is now engaged in the recognition process while still working on the other low carbon pathways. While formal feedback will follow, the framework is already sufficiently defined for companies to interpret the legislation and prepare their projects. Waiting for perfect regulatory clarity is no longer necessary. Preparation now creates competitive advantage.

Recent international offtake agreements, including the partnership announced between AM Green and Uniper, illustrate this dynamic. Projects that anticipate compliance requirements early are better positioned to secure commercial agreements. In practice, hydrogen project preparation and precertification functions as a project bankability instrument. It helps de-risk project design, supports Final Investment Decision and offtake negotiations, and streamlines the path to certification by identifying data requirements and compliance gaps early in the development process.

More broadly, trust remains the enabler of the hydrogen economy. As molecules pass through multiple intermediaries and jurisdictions, buyers must rely on verified attributes rather than declarations. Certification therefore serves not only regulatory compliance but also value creation and market transactions. It differentiates compliant from non-compliant production, supports financing discussions and protects credible projects from uncertainty and greenwashing.

CertifHy’s role is to make this practical. Clean hydrogen certification requires both interpretation of regulatory methodology and understanding of industrial systems. Our objective is not only to verify compliance but to enable compliant value creation. By combining specialised procedures and technical expertise, we reduce certification lead times from months to weeks and help operators structure production and documentation so that eligible volumes are not unnecessarily lost.

In a nascent market, generalist approaches tend to prioritise risk containment. Our approach is to establish CertifHy as a specialist able to help projects navigate complexity while maximising the value of certified production within the regulatory framework.

The hydrogen market is now entering its operational phase. Projects that integrate certification early into their development strategy will move faster, negotiate from a stronger position and reach market sooner. Our focus remains clear: supporting producers and economic operators as they translate regulation into bankable and tradable reality.

Matthieu Boisson
Managing Director, CertifHy