Jul 22, 2026 · 24 min · 10 segments
Europe set sky-high targets for green hydrogen. Today, it’s nowhere near meeting them. Journalist Jesse Pinster traced Brussels’ big hydrogen bet back to one professor: Ad van Wijk. How did his vision…
Jesse PinsterGuest
Emma du ChatinierHostCan you take us to the scene? What was happening here and why does your story start here?
And I noticed a couple of months earlier that this professor at the University of Delft, Ad van Beek, was...
So they were throwing quite a big party for him, like a symposium, a lot of speakers.
And because I've been following the whole hydrogen debate for a while back then, there were a lot of people on that list that I already knew by name, such as Jorge Chachamakis, who is the head of the hydrogen lobby in Brussels.
Then there was the professor itself, of course, but also the head of the cabinet of Frans Timmermans, who at that time was the climate commissioner in the European Commission.
That was when Diederik Samson was really writing his whole Green Deal plan, which became so big.
And I've seen some pictures before that of this professor and Diederik Samson being together.
So I was already wondering, like, what's the deal? How do these two people know each other? And what's the background story? And that was brilliant.
Basically what I already kind of was looking into and I was hoping to find out more that day in October.
Yes, I definitely did to my own surprise, actually, because the speech, which was the keynote speech of Diederik Samson, was basically laying out like every single bit I wanted to know.
Like how did they knew each other? How did they inspire each other? How did they communicate it? Like everything was in there.
And let's listen to a bit of the speech that Diederik Samson gave at this party.
At the beginning of the Green Deal, we were writing about solar panels and electrical cars and all the usual conventional stuff.
And then I was thinking we need a bit more than that.
We need more inspiration.
We need more vision and forward-looking things.
And where did that inspiration come from? People like Van Wijk.
So Somsen is basically saying here like, oh, the Green Deal made it a bigger story and it was really Van Wijk's hydrogen vision that helped provide that.
Can you take us to the scene? What was happening here and why does your story start here?
And I noticed a couple of months earlier that this professor at the University of Delft, Ad van Beek, was...
So they were throwing quite a big party for him, like a symposium, a lot of speakers.
And because I've been following the whole hydrogen debate for a while back then, there were a lot of people on that list that I already knew by name, such as Jorge Chachamakis, who is the head of the hydrogen lobby in Brussels.
Then there was the professor itself, of course, but also the head of the cabinet of Frans Timmermans, who at that time was the climate commissioner in the European Commission.
That was when Diederik Samson was really writing his whole Green Deal plan, which became so big.
And I've seen some pictures before that of this professor and Diederik Samson being together.
So I was already wondering, like, what's the deal? How do these two people know each other? And what's the background story? And that was brilliant.
Basically what I already kind of was looking into and I was hoping to find out more that day in October.
Yes, I definitely did to my own surprise, actually, because the speech, which was the keynote speech of Diederik Samson, was basically laying out like every single bit I wanted to know.
Like how did they knew each other? How did they inspire each other? How did they communicate it? Like everything was in there.
And let's listen to a bit of the speech that Diederik Samson gave at this party.
At the beginning of the Green Deal, we were writing about solar panels and electrical cars and all the usual conventional stuff.
And then I was thinking we need a bit more than that.
We need more inspiration.
We need more vision and forward-looking things.
And where did that inspiration come from? People like Van Wijk.
So Somsen is basically saying here like, oh, the Green Deal made it a bigger story and it was really Van Wijk's hydrogen vision that helped provide that.
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