Europe’s Industrial Future Depends on Moving from Ambition to Scale
The closing keynote of the 2026 H2A Symposium was delivered by Dick Benschop, former CEO of Royal Schiphol Group and President-Director of Shell Nederland, who offered a perspective on hydrogen through the lens of industrial competitiveness, resilience, and Europe’s changing geopolitical position.
Reflecting on the origins of Amsterdam’s hydrogen ambitions, Benschop recalled discussions that took place several years ago between industry, government, and infrastructure partners about the future of the Amsterdam region.
“We told the alderman we need hydrogen,” he said, noting how far the ecosystem has progressed since those early conversations.
A New World Requires New Thinking
Benschop argued that Europe is operating in a fundamentally different environment than it was only a decade ago.
What was once primarily a globalised world focused on efficiency has increasingly become a world shaped by geopolitics, strategic competition, security, and industrial policy. Europe must now navigate a landscape defined by the energy transition, growing concerns around resilience and strategic autonomy, and increasing pressure on its industrial competitiveness.
He described these three forces as a “trilemma” of:
- Sustainability
- Resilience
- Competitiveness
At the centre of this trilemma sits Europe’s industrial base. Maintaining industry while simultaneously decarbonising and remaining globally competitive will be one of Europe’s defining challenges in the years ahead.
Understanding Where Hydrogen Sits on the Curve
Using the well-known innovation “S-curve,” Benschop explained that many renewable technologies have already reached the stage where market forces alone drive deployment.
Solar, wind, batteries, electric vehicles, and heat pumps have largely moved beyond the pilot phase and into large-scale commercial deployment. Hydrogen, however, remains at an earlier stage of development. While the technology exists and first projects are underway, the challenge now is scaling from individual projects to mature markets.
The key question is no longer whether hydrogen works, but how Europe can accelerate the transition from demonstration projects to widespread adoption.
Demand Matters
A major focus of the keynote was the importance of demand creation.
Drawing on examples from sustainable aviation fuels, Benschop highlighted how mandates and demand-side measures can provide the certainty needed for investment decisions. Recent investment activity in SAF projects demonstrates that when demand is visible and predictable, projects move forward.
He argued that demand certainty and long-term offtake agreements are among the most important factors determining whether hydrogen projects reach final investment decisions.
Not an Affordability Problem, a Coordination Problem
Perhaps the most striking observation of the keynote was Benschop’s challenge to the assumption that sustainable products are prohibitively expensive.
Using examples such as fossil-free steel and green ammonia, he argued that the additional costs often appear large at project level but become relatively small when distributed across end products and consumers.
A vehicle produced using fossil-free steel may cost only a few hundred euros more, while the impact of green ammonia on everyday consumer products can be almost negligible. The challenge, therefore, is not affordability alone.
“It is not an affordability issue, it is a coordination issue.”
Creating the right market signals, procurement mechanisms, and demand-side policies may therefore be just as important as technology development itself.
Feel the Urgency
Closing the symposium, Benschop returned to a theme that had surfaced repeatedly throughout the day: urgency.
Time, he argued, is not on Europe’s side. While progress is being made, maintaining industrial competitiveness, strengthening resilience, and delivering the energy transition will require faster implementation and greater collaboration across public and private sectors.
His message to the audience was simple:
Continue building partnerships, support infrastructure development, focus on creating demand, and remain willing to think differently.
Because the challenge is no longer understanding the destination. The challenge is moving fast enough to get there.