Displaced decarbonization: Climate necropolitics and the contested spatialities of green hydrogen in Namibia

Green hydrogen is often presented as a transformative solution to the dual challenges of decarbonization and economic development. This article applies the framework of climate necropolitics to interrogate the contested spatialities underlying such “win-win” narratives. It does so through an extended case study of Hyphen Hydrogen Energy, a $10 billion green hydrogen project planned for Lüderitz, Namibia. A remote town of 20,000 in a country with a $12 billion annual GDP, Lüderitz initially appears to be an unlikely host site for the “industrial fuel of the future.” To explain this outcome, I first illustrate how discordant socio-spatial projects—including European energy security, Namibian industrialization, and (sub)national developmentalism—have shaped both the emergence and legitimation of Hyphen and the construction of Lüderitz as an abstracted space for the realization of external ambitions. I then draw on interviews, focus groups, and ethnographic encounters with Lüderitz residents to place these socio-spatial projects in the specific context of Lüderitz. My analysis demonstrates how local interpretations of Hyphen are shaped not by abstract promises of energy abundance and decarbonized development, but instead by concrete experiences of extractive violence and displaced decarbonization. Analyzing these findings through the framework of climate necropolitics, I argue that Hyphen and similar energy mega-projects are enabled by varied and at times contradictory socio-spatial projects that serve to legitimize extractive violence and displace the costs of decarbonized development. This outcome is not inevitable though—energy transitions can be otherwise, and I draw on the perspectives of Lüderitz residents to consider how. I conclude by discussing the implications of this analysis for efforts to pursue more equitable, just, and place-based low-carbon futures.