Unknowing standards: Expert ignorance in the governance of green hydrogen

In recent years, green hydrogen standards, certifications and labels have proliferated, with approximately 50 schemes now in circulation worldwide. Yet despite this proliferation, a recent survey of international energy professionals working on green hydrogen found that over one-third (34%) could not name a single standard, certification or label. We argue that this surprising finding reflects a form of situated ignorance , arising from a combination of the rapid pace of low-carbon energy transitions and the multiple epistemic communities working on green hydrogen. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship from ignorance studies, political science and transition studies, we show how the pattern of expert ignorance – consistent across world regions, sectors and professional roles – is better explained by the structural and temporal dynamics of socio-technical change than by concepts of strategic ignorance. In this way, our empirical case of green hydrogen illustrates how ignorance and unknowing are constitutive features of energy transition governance.