Dekarbonisierung auf Kosten der Anderen? Eigentumsverhältnisse in der Wasserstoffwirtschaft in Südamerika

Producing green hydrogen is particularly cost-effective and profitable in areas with favorable conditions for wind and solar parks, typically requiring large tracts of (supposedly) underutilized land. Argentina and Chile, recognized for their immense hydrogen potential, have already adopted hydrogen strategies. Chile exclusively focuses on green hydrogen, while Argentina also explores hydrogen production based on natural gas, nuclear energy, and biomass.

Local voices in both countries have expressed concerns regarding the appropriation of indigenous territories and communal lands, excessive use of groundwater or drinking water in very dry regions, neglect of local community interests, and environmental issues (such as biodiversity and bird protection).

These concerns suggest potential socio-ecological conflicts surrounding these projects. Central questions include identifying who benefits from them (through profits, jobs, rents, taxes) and who faces the negative consequences (loss of livelihood strategies, land expropriation, water extraction, waste disposal, ecological damage). The project examines how land, water, technology, infrastructure, and corporate participation are organized, political regulatory attempts, uses and transportation routes for hydrogen, necessary infrastructure, and whether the establishment of this sector reinforces or transcends fossil economic structures, mentalities, and infrastructures. Focusing on these questions, the project investigates property relations and conflicts along the hydrogen commodity chain in Chile and Argentina, analyzing their interactions with historically developed property relations. Methods of empirical social research, including expert interviews, analysis of press articles and gray literature, and participant observation, are employed.

Empirically, the project aims to systematically analyze specific property arrangements and conflicts within the hydrogen commodity chain, exploring conditions under which necessary material inputs, technology, financing, and infrastructure are provided. A central hypothesis posits a shift in property from public to private due to substantial public subsidies and incentives provided for hydrogen economy development, concentrating profits among a few transnational, predominantly fossil-based corporations. It further hypothesizes a (post-)colonial appropriation of necessary, supposedly abundant inputs (land, water, sun, wind), shifting socio-ecological costs onto vulnerable groups in South America and the public sector. To analyze this mechanism, the project will theoretically refine the central concept of property chains central to the collaborative research center (SFB), integrating analyses of global commodity chains and political ecology. Additionally, the state's role (in Argentina, Chile, and also Germany and the EU) during the climate crisis will be examined, given its substantial public investment in decarbonization initiatives, which may inadvertently perpetuate fossil structures.