China attaches great importance to the development of hydrogen energy industry and accelerates the deployment of hydrogen energy on a large scale. This paper used the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) to explore the differentiated development path of hydrogen energy as an energy carrier in China under the global temperature control perspective, and revealed the development trend of hydrogen energy from the perspectives of economic cost, structural optimization, and carbon reduction potential. The results show that: (1) with the strengthening of emission reduction policies and the improvement of carbon price, the cost advantage of clean hydrogen production technology is gradually highlighted, and the terminal penetration rate is expected to reach 5% under the temperature control 1.5℃ threshold scenario, and the proportion of hydrogen production from renewable energy is close to or even more than half; (2) under the carbon neutral scenario, in 2060, the levelized cost of hydrogen production from biomass + CCS is the lowest, and the cost of hydrogen production from coal is the highest, which are 17.0 RMB/ kg and $60.9 RMB /kg; (3) carbon sequestration for hydrogen energy utilization will increase from 0.4 billion tons in 2030 to 0.26 billion tons in 2060 under the carbon neutral scenario. Hydrogen energy will play an important role in mitigating climate change and improving air quality.