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The potential of the North African Sahara desert for its dry climate and vast expanses of land to expand large amounts of renewable energy has long been expanded. For many years, Europeans in particular have seen it as a potential source of solar energy that can meet a large share of European energy demand.
In 2009, the Desertec project, an ambitious initiative to feed Europe from the Saharan solar power plants, was launched by a coalition of European industrial and financial institutions that a small desert surface could supply 15% of Europe’s electricity through a special high-voltage power supply. direct current transmission cables.
The Desertec company eventually came to a standstill amid criticism of its astronomical costs and its neocolonial connotations. After focusing on revitalizing Desertec 2.0 by focusing on the local renewable energy market, the project eventually became Desertec 3.0, which aims to meet Europe’s hydrogen demand, a “clean” energy alternative to fossil fuels.
In early 2020, the Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) launched the MENA Hydrogen Alliance to help establish hydrogen-producing energy projects to export hydrogen to the Middle East and North Africa.
While such projects in Europe may seem like a good idea to help the continent meet its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, the approach to North Africa is quite different. There is growing concern that instead of helping the region in its green transition, these schemes will lead to looting of local resources, expropriation of communities, environmental damage and the rooting of corrupt elites.
Hydrogen: The new energy limit in Africa
As the world’s climate crisis seeks to shift to renewable energy, hydrogen has been presented as a “clean” alternative fuel. Most of the current hydrogen production is due to the extraction of fossil fuels, which causes large amounts of carbon emissions (gray hydrogen). The purest form of hydrogen – “green” hydrogen – comes from the electrolysis of water, a process that can be fed by electricity from renewable energy sources.
In recent years, as a result of strong lobbying by various interest groups, the EU has embraced the idea of a hydrogen transition as the focus of the climate response, and in 2020 presented its hydrogen strategy under the European Green Treaty (EGD). The plan proposes to switch to “green” hydrogen by 2050 through local production and the establishment of a stable supply from Africa.
Hydrogen Europe was inspired by the ideas presented by the trade body and the lobby team to implement the “2 x 40 GW Green Hydrogen Initiative”. Under the concept, by 2030 the EU would have the capacity of 40 gigawatts of renewable hydrogen electrolyzers and would import 40 gigawatts from electrolysers in surrounding areas, including the deserts of North Africa, using natural gas pipelines that already connect Algeria. European.
Germany, where Desertec was launched, has been at the forefront of the EU’s hydrogen strategy. His government has already moved to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa and Morocco to study other potential areas / countries that are particularly suitable for the development of “decarbonised fuel” from renewable energy sources, exports to Europe and green hydrogen production. In 2020, the Moroccan government partnered with Germany to develop the continent’s first green hydrogen plant.
Initiatives like Desertec have quickly made their way to the hydrogen cart, which could lead to billions of euros in EU funding. His manifesto reflects the overall narrative used to promote hydrogen and renewable energy projects. It tries to present itself as beneficial to local communities. He says it can lead to “economic development, future employment and social stability in the countries of North Africa”.
But the extraction nature of this scheme also makes it clear: “To have a fully renewable energy system in Europe, we need North Africa to produce solar and wind electricity at a competitive cost, converted into hydrogen, to be exported to Europe by pipeline.” And it ensures that it expresses its commitment to “Fortress Europe”, that projects can be “[reduce] the number of economic migrants from the region to Europe ”.
In other words, it wants to preserve Desertec and the current exploitative and neocolonial relations that Europe has with the region in North Africa, which is behind many of these “green” European projects.
Neocolonial “green transition”
In the colonial era, the European powers established an extensive economic system to extract wealth, raw materials and (slave) labor from the African continent. although the century brought independence to the African colonies, this system was never dismantled; it was only transformed, often with the help of local leaders and post-colonial authoritarian elites.
It is now feared that the EU’s green transition will continue to feed this economic system of exploitation for the benefit of large European companies and to the detriment of local communities in African countries. The impetus for the new hydrogen supply chains proposed in projects like Desertec does little to alleviate these concerns.
This is because the EU is one of the largest lobbies behind the search for hydrogen, representing fossil fuel companies, whose origins are closely linked to the colonial exploitation of European powers. Two of DII’s partners are French energy giant Total and Dutch oil giant Shell.
In Africa and elsewhere, fossil fuel companies continue to use the same economic exploitation structures established in colonialism to extract local resources and transfer wealth from the continent.
They are also keen to preserve the political situation in African countries in order to take advantage of beneficial relations with corrupt elites and authoritarian leaders. This basically allows them to engage in labor exploitation, environmental devastation, violence against local communities, etc. with impunity.
In this regard, it is not surprising that the fossil fuel industry and its lobby are pushing for hydrogen to be considered as a “clean” fuel for the future, to stay relevant and in business. The industry wants to conserve existing natural gas infrastructure and pipelines, along with the economic exploitation relationships behind them.
Given the industry’s long history of environmental damage and abuses, it’s no surprise that hydrogen boosts hide high risks of pollution. Desertec’s manifesto, for example, states that “in an initial phase (2030-2035) a large volume of hydrogen can be generated by converting natural gas into hydrogen, which accumulates CO2 in empty gas / oil fields”. Along with the use of scarce water resources to produce hydrogen, they are another example of the dumping of waste into the South and the relocation of environmental costs from North to South.
The economic benefits for its inhabitants are also in doubt. It would require a significant upfront investment to establish the infrastructure needed to produce and transport green hydrogen in Europe. Given previous experiences in carrying out such high-cost and capital-intensive projects, the investment creates more debt for the recipient country, increasing its dependence on multilateral lending and Western financial assistance.
Energy projects implemented with European support over the last decade Projects in North Africa already show how energy colonialism is reproduced in transitions to renewable energy as a capture of green or green colonialism.
In Tunisia, a solar-powered project called TuNur, approved by Desertec, has been examined for export-oriented plans. Given the country’s enormous energy shortage and dependence on Algerian natural gas imports to generate energy, it makes no sense to export electricity while the local population repeatedly suffers from blackouts.
In Morocco, Ouarzazate’s Central Solar Procurement Processes and Water Exploitation Plans, also supported by members of the DII, have raised questions about the damage that local communities can suffer. The high costs of the project – paid for with loans from international financial institutions – have also raised concerns about the debt burden on the national budget.
As the climate crisis escalates, North African countries cannot continue to participate in such exploitation projects. They cannot continue to be exporters of cheap natural resources to Europe and a site of relocated socio-environmental costs of their green transition.
They need a just transition that leads to an ecologically sustainable, equitable and just-for-all economy. In this context, existing neocolonial relations and practices need to be challenged and stopped.
For European countries and corporations, they must move away from the imperial and racist logic of cost outsourcing. Otherwise, they would continue to nurture green colonialism and pursue the exploitation of nature and labor and the exploitation of nature and labor for a supposedly green agenda, which would undermine collective efforts for an effective and just global response to climate change.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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