Hydrogen is extracted for fuel from water, natural gas, and even coal using power from renewable sources or, with carbon capture, fossil fuels. The technology has not been commercialised, but Australia is considered well-placed as an exporter due to its abundance of each of these inputs.

Since the South Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement went into force in 2014, Australian exports to South Korea have increased by almost a quarter to $24 billion in 2018.

But on the sidelines of the meeting, some delegates privately complained about local environmental regulations that they claimed amounted to a barrier to foreign investment.

In September, the NSW Independent Planning Commission blocked Korean electric utility KEPCO's plans to develop a coal mine in the Bylong Valley near Mudgee. Steel giant POSCO is still wrestling with approvals for its Hume Coal Project in the Southern Highlands.

AKBC chairman and former Labor minister Simon Crean said he understood these concerns and that a "one-stop shop" approach to regulatory approvals was sensible in principle.

But Mr Crean said the public would oppose the move to a centralised system if they believed it would override their environmental and social concerns: "It's the community outrage that brings the blocks up".


The chairman of the Korean delegation, POSCO chief executive Jeong-Woo Choi, declined to be interviewed.

Australia's chief scientist Alan Finkel, who is leading the development of a national hydrogen strategy for COAG, said Seoul's commitment to hydrogen would change the "essential energy trade" between the two countries.

Australia is South Korea's largest supplier of coal and the second-largest supplier of LNG, accounting for 33 and 18 per cent of imports. Seoul aims to cut coal's share of the energy mix from 45.3 per cent in 2017 to 36.1 per cent in 2030, and to slash domestic emissions by one-third over the same period.

"Other than diamonds, nothing is forever," Dr Finkel said.

Dr Finkel will travel to South Korea in December for an information-sharing trip, as the Australian government prepares to develop a hydrogen action plan by the end of the year.

The South Korean ambassador Baek-soon Lee said geopolitics would bring the two countries closer together, and that Canberra's focus on the Indo-Pacific and Seoul's New Southern Strategy of outreach to India and South-East Asia were complementary.

Mr Crean said the impetus behind these policies – the desire to diversify trade away from China – would benefit Australia, citing interest from South Korea in lithium products and rare earths, as well as collaboration on emerging fields such as biotechnology.

"For Australia, supply is not the problem. It's connecting to the demand. The disruptions from China are forcing Korea to identify that demand, and to recognise our capacity to deliver," Mr Crean said.