Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 16:15-17:45
Department of Development Studies, Sensengasse 3, Room SG 2, 1090 Vienna
The global green hydrogen rush is prone to repeat extractivist patterns at the expense of
economies, ecologies, and communities in the production zones in the Global South. With
a socio-ecological risk analysis grounded in energy, water, and environmental justice
scholarship, my talk focuses on the risks of the ‘green’ hydrogen transition and related
injustices, based on a mapping of hydrogen transitions in 28 countries in the Global South.
Considering energy, water, land and global justice dimensions, our findings show that
risks materialize through the exclusion of affected communities and civil society, the en-
closure of land and resources for extractivist purposes, and through the externalization
of socio-ecological costs and conflicts. This is further exemplified looking at the case of
Namibia, drawing on action research and collaborative mapping in 2023.
Contributing to debates on power, inequality, and justice in the global green hydrogen
transition, I argue that addressing hydrogen risks requires a framework of environmental
justice and a transformative perspective that encompasses structural shifts in the global
economy, including degrowth and a decentering of industrial hegemonies in the Global
North.