💧Hydrogen is the Future💧The Future Is NOW💧11 Oct 2025 10:43
Exclusive: “I don’t see batteries as the solution for electrifying the world,” says leading climate scientist, Carlos Duarte 🪫🏎️⚡️
That line came from Professor Carlos Duarte - one of the world’s leading climate scientists, the 12th most influential one in the world, in fact, according to Reuters.
Driving Hydrogen Editor, Matt Lister, interviewed him at the inaugural FIA Extreme H World Cup in Saudi Arabia this week.
As Chief Scientist of the world’s first hydrogen-powered motorsport, Duarte’s view of decarbonisation is refreshingly unorthodox.
“Mining for battery metals affects ecosystems. Now we’re looking at doing deep-sea mining - and many countries believe there should be a moratorium because of the unknown impacts on the deep sea.”
“The world is committed to 30 million tonnes of battery waste by 2030 that we don’t know how to recycle.”
Instead, he sees hydrogen as the natural next step: “Hydrogen is the currency of energy in nature. It’s the process photosynthesis invented three billion years ago - splitting water to carry energy that sustains the biosphere.”
We talked about “orange hydrogen” naturally produced underground, the challenges of transporting hydrogen globally, and how Extreme H is showing what a zero-carbon motorsport future could look like - powered by water, not lithium.
It’s one of the most thought-provoking interviews we’ve ever done - science, sustainability and sport all intersecting in the desert heat.