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The world is facing a variety of problems attributable to global warming, caused by emissions of greenhouse gases from the combustion of fossil fuels. Worldwide, the consumption of fossil fuels by developing countries, especially the People's Republic of China (China) and India, is expected to greatly increase, as the economies and populations of these countries grow. We fear that this will greatly aggravate global warming. In Northeast Asia, East Siberia and Sakhalin are rich in natural gas (NG), the cleanest fossil fuel. It is essential for the environmental protection and energy security of the Northeast Asian region to construct an energy infrastructure network that can transport and distribute NG throughout the region in the near term, and renewable-source gaseous hydrogen (GH2) in the long term. For this reason, we have promoted the construction of an NG pipeline network through the activities of the Northeast Asia Natural Gas and Pipeline Forum (NAGPF) (1). The pipeline network will be the principal component of the above energy infrastructure and will be instrumental in our evolution toward a hydrogen-based society. Some reports state that more than three-quarters of commercially exploitable hydroelectric power (hydro) resources of all Russia are in East Siberia. The surplus electric power that can be generated in the areas around Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk is estimated at 20 TWh (TWh = 109 kWh) per year. Adding the surplus hydro of the Kharnor plant in Chita Province, the total annual energy is about 25 to 30 TWh. The Bureya hydro plant, one of the highest priority study subjects under the framework of the Japan-Russia Far East Economic Cooperation agreement, and slated for startup within a few years, is expected to add another large increment of surplus energy. In addition to NG and hydro, the areas from Kamchatka through the Kuril'skiye Islands (called the Chishima Islands, in Japan) to Sakhalin is a world-class wind energy resource. West China has huge potential for solar energy. Our ultimate goal is a clean and sustainable society based on renewable energy sources, wherein hydrogen is produced from the vast potential of renewable energy in Siberia and China. The hydrogen thus produced would be transmitted through the pipeline network, progressively replacing NG as it is depleted. A series of related experimental studies called "NaturalHY" is under way in the European Union (EU) (3). This is a global opportunity; Figure 4 shows the world’s major potential hydro, solar, geothermal, and tidal power generation sites. With M. Hirata, Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, as team leader, we have conducted preparatory studies for the construction of the Northeast Asian Natural Gas Pipeline Network (Fig.1), and for the transition to a hydrogen-based society. We have proposed and promoted this scheme since 1988 (1-2). Because of the environmental and energy security problems facing Northeast Asia, this paper proposes the efficient utilization of the region's natural gas resources and the construction of a Northeast Asian Hydrogen Highway as the first step toward a hydrogen-based society based on renewable energy sources (renewables). Hydraulic modeling shows that pipelines can deliver GH2 over long distances, without midline compressors, at acceptable pressure loss (5-6). The pipeline provides significant energy storage, to smooth the time-varying output of renewables. We propose a pilot-scale plant, the International Renewable Hydrogen Transmission Demonstration Facility (IRHTDF) for R+D necessary to prove the technical and economic feasibility of large-scale, synergistic harvest and delivery of diverse, dispersed, diffuse, distant renewables.