Conflicts in the Socio-Ecological Transition: The Debate Over Green Hydrogen
Although the socio-ecological transition enjoys broad societal support, there are significant conflicts regarding its concrete implementation. This is clearly evident in the debates surrounding green hydrogen: Germany has set a goal of achieving greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045 and, to do so, aims for hydrogen imports and cooperation with producing countries in Latin America and Africa.
However, the expansion of corresponding production, import and consumption structures is accompanied by conflicts that play out simultaneously at the local, national, and transnational levels: States, companies, and civil society actors such as NGOs and trade unions in importing and exporting countries operate along four central lines of conflict, which are examined in the project: 1) distribution of benefits; 2) questions regarding the implementation of projects; (3) organization and control of the hydrogen sector; and (4) fundamental questions regarding the role of green hydrogen as a development and climate strategy.
The project aims to systematically identify the emerging lines of conflict and alliances in the field of green hydrogen. To this end, politically and economically informed conflict analyses of the green hydrogen policy field will first be conducted in qualitative case studies on Chile, Colombia, Namibia, Tunisia and Germany. Building on this, transnational conflict configurations between the first four as exporting countries and the latter as energy importer will be mapped.
The goal is to identify both similarities and differences in the internal societal dynamics of importing and exporting countries as well as their transnational interconnections, particularly with regard to network formation. In addition, the study explores possible approaches for an inclusive and conflict-sensitive design of the global energy transition in the spirit of a “just transition.” In doing so, it addresses key research gaps regarding socio-ecological transformation conflicts and social science research on hydrogen.
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