Alternative pathways for green hydrogen economy: the case of Colombia

Abstract

ABSTRACT With the escalating urgency of addressing climate change and the surge of a pro-environmental discourse during the last three to four decades, the international imperative of low-carbon societies voiced in the Paris Agreement and reiterated in the parties’ conferences call for ‘transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems’ has gained traction. However, it remains unclear to what extent this imperative addresses the entrenched extractivist and rentier practices that underpin today's carbon-intensive economy. This article turns the case of green hydrogen, often hailed as the fuel of the future, to discern whether current actions are enabling a ‘just transition’ towards the same mode of natural resource exploitation, or one that seeks to overcome the extractivist and rentier dynamics. Taking a case study of Colombia, where debates surrounding hydrogen development swirl around what could be seen as a continuity of extractivism and a more reindustrialization-oriented trajectory, this study examines some of the possible conditions that just transitions would have to comply with if they are to overcome both fossil fuel dependence and the politico-economic behaviours that have turned swathes of Global South countries into natural resource repositories.