Abstract
This article examines the contradictions of the capitalist system, particularly its exploitation of labor, humans, and nature, as the root cause of the global polycrisis. It argues that energy transition projects, when not anchored in an internationalist and just ecological transition paradigm, can lead to material conflicts between domestic interests and those on the periphery of the system. The article emphasizes the need for a planet-wide just transition, necessitating an internationalist critique of extractivism and debates connected to post-extractivism. Just transition programs will look different everywhere, but ultimately depend on one another to ensure that they are actually just. By examining the conflicts posed by extractivism in a green transition projects, from energy to transportation, this paper argues for expanding just transition debates in an internationalist manner so that the political practice of transition in one place does not come at the cost of creating sacrifice zones somewhere else.
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Notes
Green hydrogen investments depend on expanding primary sources of renewable energy, especially solar and wind, that can be utilized in the electrolysis process with a given water source, to create green hydrogen. Many countries are betting on green hydrogen production as an avenue to increase their participation in the global energy market, as is the case of Chile, Brazil, South Africa, and others, while others, such as Germany, are investing heavily in the Global South to ensure its future share of green hydrogen imports. These investment and cooperation deals have been heavily criticized for reinforcing neocolonial patterns. But there are also technological challenges to green hydrogen transportation over long distances. Current investments and plans expect green hydrogen exports through conversion into green ammonia, but even big consulting companies in the field, such as McKinsey (2024), admit that this presents a technological challenge for implementation and scale. This raises the question of how much of the green hydrogen investments are simply driven by the commodity rationale and how much of it actually connect to a technologically viable approach to decarbonization through global trade.
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This research was funded by a fellowship with the Centre for Advanced Latin American Studies and partially undertaken during a funded fellowship with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. Honorary was received for the discussion of an earlier draft at the International Conference “Climate change and the Social Sciences” at Freie Universität Berlin.
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Fernandes, S. “Just” Means “Just” Everywhere: How Extractivism Stands in the Way of an Internationalist Paradigm for Just Transitions. Int J Polit Cult Soc (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-024-09475-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-024-09475-4