The push towards hydrogen as a clean energy source ignores “several dirty facts”, the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has found, including land and resource grabs in the Global South.
Germany has played an influential role in setting the European Union’s agenda on climate and industrial policies, and Brussels now plans to spend billions in public subsidies to make the so-called “miracle gas” the centerpiece of a climate-neutral economy.
However, the report “Germany’s Great Hydrogen Race” (PDF), released Thursday, highlights that 99 percent of the hydrogen produced globally today is “grey” hydrogen made from fossil fuels, with annual CO2 emissions exceeding those of the entire country.
Touted as a “low carbon” alternative, fossil-based “blue” hydrogen has a climate footprint that’s almost as bad when its total emissions are taken into account.
“green” hydrogen, Considered “carbon free”, it accounts for just 0.04 percent of global hydrogen production in 2021 and presents serious challenges and risks.
“It is energy inefficient, behaves like a potent indirect greenhouse gas and large-scale production requires large amounts of land, water and renewable energy,” the Brussels-based watchdog found.
In addition, its production can drive “green hoarding”, or the appropriation of land and resources for environmental purposes.
“A large part of the green hydrogen that the EU plans to use will be imported from North Africa and the Middle East,” Belen Balanya, a CEO researcher, told Al Jazeera.
“While the EU is in bed with the gas industry and big corporations, who are driving the continent’s response to the energy crisis, it is ordinary citizens in Europe and North Africa who will bear the brunt of this strategy of profoundly flawed hydrogen.
‘Green hoarding’
“Germany-backed green hydrogen projects abroad follow colonial patterns,” the report says. “Resources are appropriated while negative impacts like ecological damage and energy shortages are conveniently outsourced. Conflicts over land and water use are already becoming evident and could intensify in the coming years.”
An example of human rights violations related to green hydrogen projects was the Saudi Arabian plan neom megacityfound the CEO, where the German multinational Thyssenkrupp was installing a huge electrolyser to produce hydrogen for export.
“Ancient tribes have been forcibly evicted from their land to make way for Neom,” according to the report, while several residents who resisted the evictions were sentenced to death.
Nevertheless, the cooperation between Germany and Saudi Arabia continues. “Such cooperations run the risk of reproducing and legitimizing authoritarian regimes in the name of sustainability,” said the CEO.
Similarly, land conflicts have already erupted in South Africa, where a planned port and export processing zone for green hydrogen is being developed at Boegoebaai on 160,000 hectares (395,370 acres) of expropriated land.
At the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex in Brazil, where a subsidiary of gas multinational Linde is involved in a planned green hydrogen export hub, conflicts with indigenous communities over land, water, and land have been reported for years. and environmental pollution.
The mapping of 27 countries, mostly located in Africa, did not reveal a single hydrogen project where the community was consulted prior to the decision to proceed with the project.
While the EU “developed good-sounding standards to create buy-in for green hydrogen projects abroad,” these standards apply to only a select few sites.
“Hydrogen projects in the Global South tend to be centralized megaprojects and lack civic participation,” the report says. “They ignore key issues like the prior and informed consent of communities.”
climate crisis
According to the CEO, hydrogen is not delivering on global justice as much as it is failing on its key promise: tackling the climate crisis.
“Hydrogen is another dangerous distraction and a lifeline for fossil fuel companies. Just because you put the word ‘green’ in front of an energy source doesn’t make it sustainable or fair,” said Balanya, CEO.
Hydrogen is produced from fossils, mainly gas. Unlike the creation of gray hydrogen, the “blue hydrogen” production process involves capturing and storing CO2 emissions underground in a process called CCS, or “carbon capture and storage.”
The effectiveness of this process in curbing emissions is still up for debate.
According to the report, the “hype” around hydrogen is diverting attention from much-needed structural changes, including increasing the energy efficiency of buildings, transitioning to agro-ecological farming and reducing traffic.
“Destructive industries like fossil fuels and aviation may also use the hydrogen hype for greenwashing instead of actually cutting back on their dirty businesses,” the CEO said.