Carbon Intensity of Hydrogen

Standard CAN/BNQ 1789-200
A Harmonized Methodology for Reporting the Production Pathway and Carbon Intensity of Hydrogen

The purpose of this standard is to create a harmonized approach to report essential characteristics of hydrogen production to hydrogen end-users.

In addition to carbon intensity, these key characteristics include:

• feedstock sources;
• energy sources;
• geographic supply chain;
• water supply and water intensiveness;
• country (or region) of origin.

This standard may be used to:

• communicate reliable information about the carbon intensity of hydrogen inventories, with a focus on transparency rather than uniformity of the carbon intensity evaluation;
• complement regulations referring to specific carbon intensities or to the production process of hydrogen by providing a harmonized methodology to establish and report this information;
• complement international standards related to the determination of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of hydrogen;
• complement classification systems that establish hydrogen categories by providing traceable data to legitimate category allocations by producers.

The standard also aims at providing a harmonized approach to share information on hydrogen products. It does not intend to provide an assessment of the contribution to any provincial or federal climate policy of hydrogen.

The information to be reported under this standard is two-fold:

• a label disclosing synthetic information, including the hydrogen production pathway, the hydrogen carbon intensity, and a set of synthetic pieces of information;
• an optional supplementary information compendium providing additional, more detailed information supporting the label interpretation.