Contradictory developments of the post-fossil transformation: Contested decarbonisation, fossil continuities and continued extractivism

We are witnessing the rise of a global hydrogen economy characterised by uneven global geographies of energy, industrial production and extractivism. In this new landscape, large-scale hydrogen production is anticipated to develop in Global South countries with the goal of exporting it to the Global North to support their decarbonization and green industrialisation initiatives. Although some exporting countries in the Global South are pursuing plans for self-determined green industrialisation, there is a significant risk that these efforts may fail. Instead, it seems likely that once again extractivist patterns are reproduced and socio-environmental costs externalised to the Global South. Additionally, the debate about the material basis for so-called low-carbon hydrogen is undergoing a shift. While the initial focus had been on hydrogen production from renewable energy, now hydrogen based on fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage as well as from nuclear energy are gaining importance. Furthermore, fossil continuities continue to shape the emerging hydrogen economy even in cases where green hydrogen is prioritised. To analyse these contested and contradictory developments of the global hydrogen economy, we employ the concept of post-fossil extractivism and provide empirical evidence from the EU, Germany, South Africa, Namibia, Argentina and Chile.