Hydrogen justice

Abstract

For a rapid energy transition to renewable energy, green hydrogen is increasingly considered a solution to a myriad of challenges: climate neutrality, clean energy supply, and decoupling of growth and carbon emissions. However, whether the global hydrogen transition will indeed be a just transition is far from certain. This paper introduces the concept of hydrogen justice as an analytical toolkit to help examining justice challenges of the global hydrogen transition. Placing hydrogen justice at the nexus of energy, water and climate justice, and incorporating crucial insights from political ecology and decolonial studies we highlight potential hydrogen injustices and suggest a six-dimensional concept of hydrogen justice: procedural, distributive, restorative, relational, recognitional and epistemological justice. Our research explores socio-ecological, political and economic conditions in hydrogen target countries and examines emerging hydrogen projects and partnerships. Hydrogen injustices may manifest around issues of energy access in countries with high rates of energy poverty, water access in arid regions, as well as forced displacements, impairments of Indigenous livelihoods and the strengthening of authoritarian rule. We conclude that hydrogen injustices result from the interplay of global hydrogen governance and local conditions in producing countries. We illustrate this with examples from transnational hydrogen projects situated in Morocco and Namibia. Finally, we suggest strategies for redressing hydrogen injustices by integrating justice principles at all scales of hydrogen governance.