对冲能源转型:绿色氢、石油和低碳弹性作为纳米比亚的国家战略

IF 3.4 2区 社会学 Q1 GEOGRAPHY
Meredith J. DeBoom
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引用次数: 0

摘要

政策框架越来越多地将能源转型描述为实现一系列与韧性相关目标的机制,包括社会经济发展和能源安全。对于同时面临脱碳和发展挑战的全球南方低收入国家来说,能源转型通常被认为是一项特别重要的韧性战略。然而,这些国家(其中许多拥有化石燃料资源)在引导能源转型方面面临着明显的限制和风险,包括承诺为低碳能源项目提供资金的可能性永远不会实现,或者全球脱碳将被推迟或完全放弃。本文使用纳米比亚的案例研究来挑战线性的、普遍的和明确的低碳弹性叙事,我在这里重新定义了一个术语,指的是能源转型和弹性之间的变化、位置和政治关系。具体来说,我研究了纳米比亚政府如何以及为什么制定了一项看似矛盾的低碳弹性战略,该战略利用新的石油开采,通过绿色氢为该国的低碳工业发展提供资金。根据过去三年的定性分析,我认为,纳米比亚的“对冲”战略远非自相矛盾,而是对低收入、资源丰富的全球南方国家面临的结构性约束的务实回应。然而,尽管它的设计是为了对冲多方面和多标量的风险,但我认为纳米比亚试图在能源转型中“两面下注”,最终可能会加剧现有的社会经济和结构挑战,从而破坏其恢复力的目标。最后,我将讨论这些发现对在一个不平等的世界中追求公平脱碳和发展的影响。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
Hedging energy transition: Green hydrogen, oil, and low-carbon resilience as state strategy in Namibia
Policy frameworks increasingly portray energy transition as a mechanism for achieving a range of resilience-related goals, including socio-economic development and energy security. Energy transition is often characterized as a particularly important resilience strategy for lower-income states in the Global South, which face the simultaneous challenges of decarbonization and development. Yet these states, many of which have fossil fuel resources, face distinct constraints and risks in navigating energy transition, including the possibility that promised funding for low-carbon energy projects will never come to fruition or that global decarbonization will be deferred or abandoned completely. This article uses the case study of Namibia to challenge linear, universalizing, and unambiguous narratives of low-carbon resilience, a term I reconceptualize here to refer to the variant, situated, and political relationships between energy transition and resilience. Specifically, I examine how and why the Namibian government has developed a seemingly paradoxical strategy for low-carbon resilience, which leverages new oil extraction to fund the country’s low-carbon industrial development via green hydrogen. Drawing on qualitative analysis over three years, I argue that, far from paradoxical, Namibia’s 'hedging' strategy is a pragmatic response to the structural constraints faced by lower-income, resource-rich Global South states. Yet despite its design as a hedge against multi-faceted and multi-scalar risks, I contend that Namibia's attempt to 'play both sides' of energy transition is likely to ultimately undermine its goal of resilience by compounding existing socio-economic and structural challenges. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the pursuit of equitable decarbonization and development in an unequal world.
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来源期刊
Geoforum
Geoforum GEOGRAPHY-
CiteScore
7.30
自引率
5.70%
发文量
201
期刊介绍: Geoforum is an international, inter-disciplinary journal, global in outlook, and integrative in approach. The broad focus of Geoforum is the organisation of economic, political, social and environmental systems through space and over time. Areas of study range from the analysis of the global political economy and environment, through national systems of regulation and governance, to urban and regional development, local economic and urban planning and resources management. The journal also includes a Critical Review section which features critical assessments of research in all the above areas.
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