UNIDO TO BUILD HYDROGEN LABORATORY IN TURKEY

UNIDO TO BUILD HYDROGEN LABORATORY IN TURKEY

(Reissued as received.)

VIENNA, 21 October (UNIDO) -- “Turkey will be among the first countries to manufacture an hydrogen car.  Our scientists are studying the project, we are definitely in the race”, Mehmet Hilmi Güler, Turkish Minister for Energy and Natural Resources, said in Vienna, where he signed an agreement with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)to build in Istanbul a $40 million International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technology (ICHET), entirely financed by Turkey.

Beyond helping Turkey to increase the amount of energy produced from non-fossil fuels, UNIDO's project is aimed at transferring existing hydrogen technologies from Turkey to other developing countries to help them to catch up with the developed world in the field of renewable energy resources.  “At present, more than 2 billion people, one third of humanity, have no access to energy.  Hydrogen is the ideal fuel, it's cheap and does not affect the level of pollution”, said Carlos Magariños, Director-General of UNIDO, adding that the transfer of hydrogen technology will be discussed at length at the forthcoming General Conference of UNIDO to be held in Vienna in December.

Mr. Magariños stressed the importance of the agreement with Turkey as a positive example of multilateral cooperation “which remains a very correct and pragmatic way of helping developing countries”.

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