Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen of the committee, thank you for giving us the opportunity to present our vision of how Air Liquide Canada plans to contribute to the energy transition, particularly in the area of fuel mobility.

A few words about Air Liquide. The group is a little over one hundred years old, with a presence in 78 countries and with 65,000 employees. I feel that it is important for me to tell you that our business is to play with small, very simple molecules and to put them to work for our clients and our patients. We do so in a reliable and long-term way, with the objectives of improving the processes, of better, quicker and more efficient production, and of delivering the products with a carbon footprint that is as small as possible. All with the goal of improving our patients' quality of life.

Air Liquide has had a presence in Canada since 1911, from the east coast to the west coast. We have four pillars: the primary production of those molecules with existing pipeline systems; activities that are predominantly industrial, at a small to medium scale, or involving captive fleets, such as fork lifts that today are fuelled by hydrogen cells; and two very transactional activities, both extensive: in industry, particularly for welding, and in health care.

The Air Liquide group's path is clear: we want to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Those are not empty words but they are not easy to put into effect because we are a structure and a growing entity at the same time. The entity puts great stock on its historical assets: separating air into component gases, producing molecules and enhancing energy. We also put a lot of stock on our clients as we improve their processes, which involves working and innovating together. Finally, we really wish to be involved in creating these new ecosystems. Our group has a strong ambition to use the hydrogen society as a means to growth. The object is to add value, but within a society with a low carbon footprint, including for mobility.

The hydrogen molecule is small, simple, efficient, and generally easy to store and to use. As a fuel, it can help to decarbonize our society, especially in transportation, including heavy transportation.

Those are lofty words, but our current vision in the Air Liquide group is to invest eight billion euros in the hydrogen value chain, in the coming decade and all around the world. Basically, that means an objective to invest three gigawatts of electrolysis, and, I repeat, all around the world. I also stress the importance of working on basins and greatly expanding the needs. For us, this is an extremely important point that we can come back to.

The Air Liquide group sets itself apart because we are investors at the same time as we work on the technology at all stages of the hydrogen value chain. They include primary production, transportation by pipeline or in liquid or compressed form, and delivery at the points of use via fuel refilling stations that we design and manufacture ourselves. In addition, we really see scaling-up as our calling.

We will come back to the importance of increasing the size of all these facilities because our objective for them is relatively simple. Whether it is to decarbonize the industry or to improve transportation, it seems critical to us to increase the size of our facilities. We can then significantly reduce the cost of our investment in those facilities and in the value chain in its entirety. Even more, we have to make sure, either immediately, or with the help of a number of industrial, private and public partners and clients, that we can move towards a low-carbon world where the price of hydrogen for the end user is as low as possible, which is what this is all about. It would allow us to properly position ourselves among the other technologies, including fossil fuels.

In that context, we are convinced that we can reduce the price of hydrogen by 60% in the coming decade. One of the great stages that we have achieved, as you have probably already heard, is at our Bécancour site, where we have produced 20 megawatts, or a little more than eight tonnes, of totally renewable hydrogen. That product, which started to flow at the end of last year, is today fuelling industrial and transportation needs in Canada and the northeastern United States.

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