Air Liquide

And with that, let's kick off right away.

I have a little opening question here for you that was left by our episode one guest, François Jacob, CEO of Air Liquide.

And he asked quite a deep and provocative question.

When your children challenge you one day, why aren't we moving faster with the energy transition? Why is it taking so long to deploy hydrogen at scale? What will you tell them?

... administration, you know, Governor Landry told us on day one, everyone in his cabinet, there was a sense of urgency to change Louisiana's outcomes.

So we've done everything with that same sense of urgency, and it's, it's a good thing that we do because when you, you get to engage with a company like SpaceX and the Elon Musk company, frankly-

Yeah

... with that sense of urgency, so, so philosophically, it's how we do everything.

That's exactly... [laughs] Very good point, Dee.

Yeah, yeah.

Um, so the phone call on Thursday was simply that some senior-level executives with the company needed to have a Zoom with, with me as secretary and, and Paige Carter, our chief business development officer, the next day.

And I thought, the Friday before Mardi Gras, these people are either unaware of Louisiana or really in a hurry.

Investors are favouring financially robust companies with globally diversified revenue streams.

Think L'Oréal, Total Energies, LVMH, Air Liquide, these firms are viewed as less exposed to France's domestic fiscal and political risks.

Air Liquide's recent bond issue attracted strong demand despite offering yields below comparable government bonds.

French banks, however, remain closely tied to the sovereign and face a tougher environment.

And closer to home, the Swiss National Bank made headlines as well.

Amid green hydrogen being declared integral to a new industrial framework at the Africa Green Hydrogen Summit in South Africa, the Global Hydrogen Council is urging the world to lift its hydrogen production game at pace.

While the summit was being told that South Africa's Just Energy Transition Investment Plan Programme Management Office at the Industrial Development Corporation, had identified 24 hydrogen projects, the Hydrogen Council co-chairperson and Air Liquide CEO, Francois Jacot, was advising the world to bring hydrogen to scale, while simultaneously pointing out that the energy issues triggered by the conflict in the Middle East had reminded all of us that energy security is a vital priority.

While the climate topic, underscored by the latest Northern Hemisphere heat wave, was still a significant hydrogen promoter, it was appropriate that the decarbonisation threat now be joined by the state of the world, sovereignty, energy security, supply resilience, industrial competitiveness, energy strategy, and electrification, which had become the additional strategic imperatives.

Clearly, hydrogen had a key role to play, Jackow explained during a Global Hydrogen Compass 2026 webinar covered by Mining Weekly.