International audienceMost of countries which promote research and development programs on hydrogen energy have considered the public acceptance. In the open literature, results of some opinion polls are available, which have been performed in USA, Canada, Japan, Germany, Island.... In order to provide a first basis to the AIDHY project, (the objective of which is to improve the public acceptance of hydrogen as an energy vector and is supported by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche), the AFH2 (Association Française de l'Hydrogène) has realized two opinion polls, during year 2008. The first one, during the fair of Transports and sustainable mobility, during September, in the gardens of Trocadéro and the second, on the occasion of the exhibition for equipment, technologies and services of environment (Pollutec), in Lyon, during December. We will provide the notable results of these two polls. We will present a synthesis of opinion polls in various countries and briefly point out, the initiating circumstances, methodologies, classes of public... Finally, we will examine how the information given to several categories of people, can influence the perception of problems linked to hydrogen energy and provide a few recommendations in order to improve the public acceptance of hydrogen
