China International Hydrogen Congress & Expo Grandly Opens, Unleashing New Economic Growth Drivers for the 15th Five-Year Plan
Beijing, March 25, 2026 — Spring ushers in a new journey, and we gather to embrace a new chapter. At a critical juncture where the global energy landscape is rapidly reshaping and China is fully entering a new stage of high-quality development under the 15th Five-Year Plan, the highly anticipated 2026 China International Hydrogen Congress & Expo (CIHC 2026) grandly opened at the China National Convention Center in Beijing.
As the first large-scale industry event in the hydrogen sector during the inaugural year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the congress is themed "Towards Innovation and Sustainability, Building a Win-win Future". It has built a comprehensive event system, encompassing a large-scale exhibition, a plenary session & 15th Five-Year Plan Hydrogen Industry Development Forum, as well as the International Cooperation Forum on Green Hydrogen Trading, Hydrogen Industry-Finance Innovation Cooperation Forum, and a host of special events. The congress brings together top global academicians, industry leaders, representatives of international organizations, and policymakers, showcasing cutting-edge innovations across the entire hydrogen value chain.
It aims to become a bellwether for global green hydrogen development and a core hub for international cooperation and trading. With strong support from the National Energy Administration and other authorities, the event is co-hosted by the China Hydrogen Alliance and China Electricity Council, with special support from China Energy Investment Corporation (CHN Energy) and co-organized by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Steering the 15th Five-Year Plan: High-Level Dialogues Chart New Industry Directions
2026 marks the start of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan and a pivotal year for the hydrogen industry to move toward large-scale commercialization. As the intellectual engine of the congress, the 2026 International Hydrogen Congress & 15th Five-Year Plan Hydrogen Industry Development Forum has gathered over 1,300 delegates from government, industry, academia, research, and application sectors, who delivered important speeches on top-level policy guidance for the hydrogen industry, international strategic cooperation, and the role of leading enterprises.
Officials from relevant departments, including the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the Investment Promotion Agency of the Ministry of Commerce, the Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Department of Climate Change of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the Department of Energy Conservation and Science & Technology Equipment of the National Energy Administration, attended the meeting.
In his address, Bian Guangqi, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Energy Conservation and Science & Technology Equipment of the National Energy Administration, highly commended the remarkable achievements China has made in hydrogen during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, including self-reliance in technical equipment, infrastructure construction, and diversified application scenarios. He emphasized that hydrogen has been clearly designated as a key future industry at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and this year’s Government Work Report explicitly states that cultivating green fuels such as hydrogen will be fostered as new economic growth drivers. Facing the challenges of the new stage of large-scale development, he urged the entire industry to continuously strengthen think tank support, leverage the platform’s bridging role, deepen collaborative research and development, jointly cultivate new productive forces in the energy sector, and make more active contributions to building a new energy system.
Vineet Bhatia, Senior Advisor of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) China Office, delivered a speech elaborating on the urgency of global energy transition and the broad prospects for China-international cooperation. He noted that 2026 holds special significance as China officially launches its 15th Five-Year Plan, which places green development and renewable energy at the core of national progress. This aligns closely with the core pillars of the new UNDP China Country Programme (2026–2030), including sustainable development, climate action, and clean energy transition. He stressed that according to the International Energy Agency, green hydrogen accounted for less than 1% of global hydrogen production as of 2025, presenting enormous development potential. As a global leader in hydrogen technology, China has maintained long-term cooperation with UNDP since 2003 and now boasts the world’s largest fleet of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen refueling station network, providing vital support for the global energy transition.
Feng Laifa, Chairman of the China Hydrogen Alliance, Director, General Manager, and Deputy Party Secretary of CHN Energy, stated in his opening address that firmly advancing hydrogen development is an inevitable choice to follow the trend of global energy transformation and support the building of an energy powerhouse. For the 15th Five-Year Plan, CHN Energy will adhere to the dual-wheel drive of the "green hydrogen industry chain" and "hydrogen innovation service chain," focusing on core scenarios such as electric power and new energy, heavy-duty transportation, and green chemical industries. It will accelerate the layout and construction of 10,000-ton-level green hydrogen-ammonia-methanol industrial bases, deepen integrated innovation of hydrogen with the Group’s internal coal, power, chemical, and transportation scenarios, and build national-level hydrogen innovation platforms and hydrogen equipment pilot bases to high standards. The company will strive to break through key technologies across the entire value chain, provide solid support for the construction of a new energy system, and work with the China Hydrogen Alliance and global industry partners to build a complementary, open, and integrated hydrogen industry ecosystem.
The keynote report session was rich and insightful, with top industry experts, government representatives, and global leaders delivering profound insights from the perspectives of technological innovation, industrial research, regulatory alignment, and global vision. Academician Zheng Nanfeng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences shared "Green Hydrogen Technological Innovation and Development Opportunities in the 15th Five-Year Plan," deeply analyzing the market prospects of breakthroughs in underlying technologies.
Pan Guoying, Director of the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, pointed out that Hong Kong is actively integrating into the national development landscape and committed to playing a key strategic supporting role in the national hydrogen industry.
Yu Zhuoping, Director of the Expert Committee of the China Hydrogen Alliance, released the "Research on the Development of the Hydrogen Industry in the 15th Five-Year Plan," noting that a host of cutting-edge technologies were unveiled, comprehensively showcasing the core strengths and strategic layouts from alkaline and PEM water electrolysis hydrogen production to fuel cells, core storage and transportation equipment, and integrated hydrogen-ammonia-methanol large-scale bases.
The exhibition highlights strong industrial incubation and cutting-edge leadership functions. During the event, more than 60 hydrogen innovation technologies, new products, and solutions representing the industry’s highest level made their global or domestic debut, covering key materials, core components, and large-scale complete sets of equipment. A series of major project signing and launching ceremonies were held intensively on-site, achieving one-stop matching of full-chain resource demands and effectively driving the transformation of scientific and technological achievements from exhibits to commodities and from display to implementation.
The establishment of special exhibition zones further demonstrates the vitality of the industrial ecosystem. The City Theme Zone attracted representatives from over 20 local governments across China, presenting the distinctive development achievements and investment promotion policies of hydrogen-pioneering regions such as Ordos, Beijing, Hong Kong, Xiamen, and Qingdao. The Achievement Transformation Zone gathered the latest R&D achievements from more than 10 top universities and research institutes, including Tsinghua University, Peking University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, bridging the final gap in industry-university-research collaborative innovation.
Forging a Foundation and Leading the Trend: China Hydrogen Alliance Builds an Industrial Collaboration Hub
Looking back at the 14th Five-Year Plan, China’s hydrogen industry has completed a critical transition from cultivation and exploration to orderly breakthrough. In this profound industrial transformation, the China Hydrogen Alliance, as an advocate, promoter, and practitioner of China’s hydrogen industry, has always stood at the forefront of industrial development. After eight years of deep cultivation, the Alliance has expanded its membership to 340 enterprises across 26 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities nationwide, bringing together numerous academicians and experts to become a global think tank platform for industrial innovation, collaborative development, and open cooperation.
Relying on the strengthened and optimized China Hydrogen Alliance Research Institute, the Alliance efficiently supports the implementation of major national hydrogen projects and the formulation of top-level plans. It has released the China Hydrogen Industry Development Report for five consecutive years and launched initiatives such as "Hydrogen Leader," "Quality Journey," and "Renewable Hydrogen 100," as well as released a series of pioneering measures including the hydrogen price index, providing solid support for the high-quality development of China’s hydrogen industry.
Since the launch of the CIHC in 2021, China Hydrogen Alliance has used exhibitions as a medium for five years of deep cultivation. Over the past five years, CIHC has attracted over 1,000 exhibitors and 120,000 professional visitors and released more than 20 major industrial achievements.
Today, CIHC has evolved from a single display window into a comprehensive national-level platform for cooperation and exchange integrating conferences, exhibitions, competitions, finance, services, and talent, becoming an irreplaceable core hub for the industry to gain insights into national macro strategies, grasp global technological trends, and seize market opportunities.
Building an International Trading Platform to Empower New Growth Drivers in the 15th Five-Year Plan
In addition to the main forum, the congress will concurrently host a number of core forums and important meetings to precisely address industry pain points. The International Cooperation Forum on Green Hydrogen Trading focuses deeply on global green hydrogen-based fuel market trends and cross-border green hydrogen trading mechanisms, breaking through key commercial bottlenecks for green hydrogen to move from production capacity to the market. The Hydrogen Industry-Finance Innovation Cooperation Forum links capital and industry, injecting financial momentum into the commercialization of technological achievements.
Furthermore, the special event "Green Hydrogen Coupled Chemical Innovation Forum" systematically tackles complex challenges in the "electricity-hydrogen-chemical" collaborative system, promoting deep decarbonization in high-emission industries such as petrochemicals. Concurrently, closed-door meetings including the Eighth Meeting of the First Council of the China Hydrogen Alliance were held, uniting core industry forces to plan for development.
Against the backdrop of profound changes unseen in a century and severe global climate change challenges, the successful holding of CIHC 2026 carries macro-strategic significance beyond the industry itself.
This is an international exchange and trading feast rooted in China and radiating globally. The congress has reached an unprecedented level of internationalization, attracting overseas delegations and leading multinational enterprises from over 20 countries, as well as procurement decision-makers from more than 70 countries and regions worldwide. Representatives from international organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Hydrogen Council, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) also attended.
The carefully built international cooperation and green hydrogen trading platform effectively unblocks two-way circulation channels for technology, capital, and markets, helping Chinese enterprises go global with high-quality production capacity and technology while introducing international advanced experience and strong capital, deepening the integration and interoperability of the global hydrogen industry chain and supply chain.
It is also a powerful engine for cultivating new macroeconomic growth drivers in the 15th Five-Year Plan. Standing at the new starting point of the 15th Five-Year Plan, hydrogen is entrusted with the important historical mission of developing new productive forces and creating new economic growth drivers. By breaking down technological barriers, exploring cross-border green hydrogen trading and pricing mechanisms, and promoting in-depth industry-finance integration, the exhibition has effectively accelerated the critical transition of hydrogen from policy-driven to market-led. It not only contributes Chinese wisdom and solutions to the high-quality, large-scale development of the global hydrogen industry but also injects continuous green momentum into China’s accelerated construction of a new energy system and the achievement of the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality strategic goals.
