Australia and India have built the architecture for green-hydrogen cooperation, but the next challenge is turning ambition into bankable industrial projects. Australia’s greatest leverage may lie beyond national agreements, in connecting regional Indian industrial hubs with finance, certification, technology and long-term demand.
Green hydrogen has gained international attention as a promising clean fuel alternative. Made using electricity generated by renewable energy sources to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, it can help reduce emissions in steelmaking and fertiliser production, and provides an input for cleaner shipping fuels such as ammonia. However, its industrial promise largely depends on whether customers can afford it and obtain dependable supplies.
Australia’s partnership with India should address that commercial challenge, and the diplomatic foundations are already in place. The next step is to connect producers with industrial buyers, infrastructure and finance, giving Australian firms a practical role in building cleaner Indian industries.
India’s national mission targets at least five million tonnes of annual green-hydrogen production capacity by 2030. Manufacturing incentives and a digital certification portal launched in June 2026 support that ambition. The bilateral Green Hydrogen Taskforce delivered its recommendations in 2025, and Australia’s Guarantee of Origin scheme began operating that November.
Yet targets cannot guarantee customers. In November 2025, India’s renewable-energy secretary warned that uncertain export demand could delay the five-million-tonne goal until 2032. The official target remains 2030. Australia can help close this gap by supporting projects that meet emissions standards and are credible enough for buyers, lenders and investors to commit.
That work must reach beyond Canberra and New Delhi.
India’s state governments heavily influence access to land, electricity and water, with their ports and industrial customers determining how production reaches a market. Partnerships with these institutions should therefore become the organising principle of Australia’s engagement.
Connecting Regional Strengths to Australian Capabilities
Four overlapping areas offer a starting point: western production and exports, eastern heavy industry, southern fertiliser and shipping, and Maharashtra’s finance and engineering capabilities. This approach follows industrial needs across state borders. It would help Australian firms identify where their equipment, expertise or financing could make a project viable.
In western India, Gujarat’s industrial coastline and neighbouring Rajasthan’s renewable-energy resources could connect inland production with factories and overseas markets. A March 2026 government update identified Gujarat’s Deendayal Port among three recognised green-hydrogen hubs, alongside Paradip and V.O. Chidambaranar. It reported a commissioned one-megawatt electrolyser-based plant, 3,400 acres allocated to hydrogen and ammonia projects, and an ammonia-compatible jetty with annual cargo-handling capacity of 3.5 million tonnes. These assets establish a foundation for development; they do not demonstrate that proposed production volumes are already being delivered.
Rajasthan’s Jodhpur Hydrogen Valley Innovation Cluster, intended to connect hydrogen production, research and local use, offers another entry point. Australian firms should work with project developers and state and port authorities to identify contracts for water treatment, electrical equipment, storage and safety systems. The question is which missing capability would enable each project to proceed.
On the east coast, Odisha combines steelmaking, fertiliser demand and access to Paradip Port. In February 2026, the government approved a jetty with an estimated cost of 7.97 billion rupees (about US$83 million) and planned annual handling capacity of four million tonnes. Demand also has a concrete expression: the Solar Energy Corporation of India’s first green-ammonia procurement auction, announced in August 2025, covered 75,000 tonnes a year for Paradeep Phosphates at 55.75 rupees per kilogram (approximately US$0.58/kg). Whilst this is only an auction award, rather than evidence of completed deliveries, it identifies a customer and a price around which suppliers can plan.
Australian cooperation should connect these opportunities to industrial testing. The India–Australia Green Steel Partnership funded five research projects through June 2026 across different approaches to cleaner steelmaking. Follow-on work should bring promising results into named mills, with industrial partners testing production costs and taking responsibility for investment decisions.
Further south, Andhra Pradesh’s fertiliser plants and Tamil Nadu’s ports offer opportunities in cleaner feedstocks and marine fuels. Green-ammonia supply agreements announced in March 2026 covered a combined 135,000 tonnes annually for Coromandel facilities in Kakinada and Visakhapatnam, on Andhra Pradesh’s coast. In Tamil Nadu, V.O. Chidambaranar Port at Thoothukudi commissioned a small hydrogen pilot in April 2025. The March 2026 ports update also reported green-methanol bunkering facilities under development. Bunkering means supplying ships with fuel.
Turning such plans into dependable services requires safe storage and transfer, trained crews and reliable supply. Australia can contribute relevant experience: ship-to-ship ammonia transfers were demonstrated at Dampier in September 2024. Cooperation with Indian ports could use lessons from that trial to develop operating procedures and joint training.
Maharashtra, a major western industrial and financial centre, offers a complementary role. Its policy targets 500,000 tonnes of annual green-hydrogen production capacity by 2030. Mumbai’s financial institutions could help structure offtake agreements, under which customers commit to buying future production. Pune, selected for one of four Hydrogen Valley Innovation Clusters, could support technology testing and manufacturers’ efforts to meet industrial standards. Australian partnerships should develop these capabilities alongside production projects, helping suppliers deliver and investors assess risk.
Making Emissions Evidence Useful Across Borders
Across these regions, buyers need evidence of what “green” means. India’s hydrogen standard limits emissions to two kilograms of carbon-dioxide equivalent per kilogram of hydrogen, averaged over 12 months. Its boundary covers upstream inputs and production up to the factory gate. Australia’s Product Guarantee of Origin is a voluntary certification framework recording production emissions and, where applicable, transport and storage emissions.
Australia’s separate Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive will apply to eligible Australian production from 1 July 2027, with a production-emissions ceiling of 0.6 kilograms of carbon-dioxide equivalent per kilogram of hydrogen. That threshold governs domestic tax eligibility. It is not a general standard for Indian imports, and the two countries’ rules should not be treated as interchangeable.
A useful bilateral pilot would follow one project’s hydrogen from production to an industrial customer. It should establish how electricity use is verified, which emissions are counted and how audit records accompany the product. Better evidence could reduce repeated verification while preserving each market’s requirements. Cooperation should make certification easier to assess without promising automatic mutual recognition.
Building Cleaner Industries Around Hydrogen
The larger opportunity lies in the industries that green hydrogen can help decarbonise. Australia should build its commercial offer around cleaner fertiliser feedstocks, lower-emissions steel and emerging marine fuels.
For steel, the stakes extend to export markets. India exported US$10.18 billion of iron and steel in 2024. These were not necessarily green products. The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism entered its definitive phase on 1 January 2026, bringing covered imports, including iron and steel, within its carbon-cost regime. Purchases of certificates covering 2026 imports begin in February 2027.
India is developing its own standards: 89 steel units had received green-steel certification by 31 March 2026, covering 12.34 million tonnes of production. Domestic certification does not itself satisfy European reporting obligations. Australian cooperation should link cleaner production methods with credible plant-level emissions measurement and the requirements of the intended market.
Cement shows why this strategy must also extend beyond hydrogen. According to NITI Aayog’s 2026 cement roadmap, India produced about 427 million tonnes in FY2024. Hydrogen could replace some fossil fuel used to heat kilns, but it cannot eliminate the carbon dioxide released when limestone is converted into lime, a process called calcination.
NITI Aayog, the Indian government’s apex public-policy think tank, identifies cleaner energy and alternative fuels as substitutes for clinker, cement’s main intermediate material, and carbon capture. Its analysis informs policy debate rather than constituting a binding commitment. Australian firms could contribute process technology, lower-carbon ingredients and testing services suited to Indian plants.
Turning Partnerships into Working Projects
Australia should organise its contribution around these practical needs. Foreign affairs and energy officials can coordinate standards discussions. Austrade can connect suppliers with customers, Export Finance Australia can assess eligible transactions, and CSIRO and universities can help test technologies.
State governments and ports should pursue agreements tied to specific projects. Dampier and Deendayal or Thoothukudi could cooperate on ammonia handling. The Pilbara and Odisha could test iron-processing partnerships. The Hunter and Port Kembla could share experience in industrial transition and workforce development with Indian regions.
Each agreement should identify the project owner, buyer and financing route. It should specify the shared infrastructure required, such as storage tanks or a jetty, and assign responsibility for approvals and delivery. Grants can support trials and early development; continuing assistance should depend on evidence that customers and investors are prepared to commit.
Purchase agreements, committed finance and infrastructure brought into service should become the measures of success. By solving the problems that prevent viable projects from advancing, Australia can give the hydrogen partnership a wider purpose: helping both countries build competitive cleaner industries.
Dr Simran Keshwani is founder and principal research lead at IndiaForth, a Sydney-based strategic advisory firm focused on India’s global engagement. A political economist and author, she researches industrial strategy, economic security and clean-energy transitions, with particular expertise on the Australia-India relationship and the Indo-Pacific.
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