Why H2?

Hydrogen is available almost everywhere on earth's surface and even those places that don't have ready access to water usually have the primary energy (solar/ wind) with which to trade with those who have more water than primary energy.

Technology is exportable. Any nation with the foresight and capability to develop technologies, techniques and products to support the use of hydrogen can recover some of that cost by exporting it to nations that need it.

H2 can be generated locally, distributed or centralised. Such a capability should allow any society with a wish to prosper to adopt a hydrogen economy.

A popular alternative to hydrogen, in particular for transport is methanol. Other than being toxic, methanol would have to be produced in a sustainable way if it is to have a neutral impact on CO2 levels (CO2 is created by combusting methanol). In this respect it is equivalent to hydrogen, which also has to be created.

Therefore, a new set of technologies and infrastructure would be required for both but with hydrogen there is the high availability of the raw material to create it, in addition to a multiplicity of uses for the most common material in the universe.