Mediating inclusion in the (Un) just energy transition in Africa: A case of South Africa’s Green hydrogen in Namaqualand and Kenya’s Geothermal in Mt. Suswa

Daniel Salau Rogei, Stellenbosch Univiersity (South Africa)

Renewable energy is increasingly becoming a popular technofix solution for the global climate change crisis. Owing to the space-intensive nature of the mega renewable projects, the rural, marginal landscapes becomes preferable for such investments. Crafted globally as North-South technology transfer with ‘just energy transition’ tag domesticated through nationally determined contributions and related frameworks, green energy revolution becomes yet another frontier for contestation in Africa. Nested institutional hierarchies are jostling for space through arrangements such as the much touted private-public partnership (PPP) that brings together both governments and private institutions, aiming at unlocking an array of potential green energies investments. Ranging from geothermal steams to wind and solar farms, and lately green hydrogen, these techno solutions conjures hopes and promises that pledge to create frontiers of opportunities through conferment of benefits to the climate-impacted local communities. The wide range of promises – from clean and affordable electric power, to job creation and infrastructural development – are, from the host communities’ perspectives, largely meant to secure ‘social permit’ and often reneged thereafter- leaving behind more impoverished, destabilized and conflict stricken communities. Drawing from the empirical data and contextually analysed Namaqualand’s green hydrogen (South Africa) and Mt Suswa (Kenya) geothermal projects, this paper examines the anticipatory actions being taken by the project impacted communities to mediate the just energy transition hurdles inherently embedded in the renewable energy institutional assemblages. To that end, I argue that besides reinforcing hegemonic powers that may advance green colonialism, the complexity of these institutional assemblages negates the just transition principles it purports to embody, creating new frontiers of sacrifice, conflict and vulnerability.