A New Frontier of Decarbonization? Green Hydrogen in South America
Felix Dorn (University of Vienna)
Green hydrogen (GH2) is increasingly regarded as a key element of the global energy transition. In South America, GH2 projects have raised expectations for economic growth, job creation, and investment, while also being framed as pathways toward a CO₂-neutral future. However, these projects are embedded in a long history of resource extraction, often organized as enclave economies, which have not always contributed to broader social development.
This presentation critically examines GH2 production as a contested process. Firstly, it explores political conflicts emerging from regulatory frameworks, where green and fossil fuel interests often collide. Secondly, it investigates new socio-ecological disputes linked to land use, energy infrastructure, and local resistance. While decarbonization is increasingly framed as essential for disaster risk reduction, this analysis highlights the risks, conflicts, and injustices inherent in particular pathways to carbon neutrality. Embedded in political ecology, this analysis draws on frontier literature, imaginaries, and a relational concept of territory to understand the socio-political transformations linked to the hydrogen economy. Through case studies from Argentina, Chile, and Colombia, the presentation situates GH2 within broader patterns of territorial reconfiguration and resource governance, offering insights into the socio-political challenges of the decarbonization frontier.
The lecture will be followed by by a reception with refreshments and a digital gallery featuring a selection of Felix Dorn's photographs.
Bionote
Felix Dorn works as university assistant (post-doc) at the Department of Development Studies, University of Vienna. In February 2021 he finished his PhD at Innsbruck University on socio-ecological conflicts in the global lithium production network. His current research focuses on the political ecology of decarbonization and the accompanying valorization of climate change commodities such as lithium and green hydrogen in Latin America and Southern Europe.
Date:
April 9, 2025
17:45-19:15
Venue:
Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies, Library, 3rd floor
Weyertal 59 (back building), 50937 Cologne
This event is co-organized by the Thematic Area “Infrastructures” of the Global South Studies Center (GSSC) and the Research Hub Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities (MESH) as part of the Research Fruits Lecture Series and the GSSC's Public Lecture Series.
In Cooperation with the Cologne Geographical Society (Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Köln e.V.).