From Energiewende to Zeitenwende? Germany's Geopolitical Discourse on Hydrogen

With Europe striving towards net zero carbon emissions, green hydrogen is a key priority in EU energy policy due to its significant potential for decarbonizing energy-intensive industries. Germany, Europe’s largest economy and carbon-emitter, significantly shapes EU energy policy with its domestic Energiewende model, and has been among the first member states to pursue an explicit global hydrogen strategy as part of its foreign policy. However, given the country’s energy import-dependence on Russia, the latter’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and resulting breakaway of Russo-German trade relations has invoked a Zeitenwende (‘turning point’) in Germany’s foreign policy: diverging from past narratives on economic interdependence and market-driven politics, geopolitical and national security considerations are becoming more pronounced. This ‘paradigm shift’ thus has important implications for Germany’s hydrogen strategy, a cornerstone in its current foreign policy. Drawing onto...Show moreWith Europe striving towards net zero carbon emissions, green hydrogen is a key priority in EU energy policy due to its significant potential for decarbonizing energy-intensive industries. Germany, Europe’s largest economy and carbon-emitter, significantly shapes EU energy policy with its domestic Energiewende model, and has been among the first member states to pursue an explicit global hydrogen strategy as part of its foreign policy. However, given the country’s energy import-dependence on Russia, the latter’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and resulting breakaway of Russo-German trade relations has invoked a Zeitenwende (‘turning point’) in Germany’s foreign policy: diverging from past narratives on economic interdependence and market-driven politics, geopolitical and national security considerations are becoming more pronounced. This ‘paradigm shift’ thus has important implications for Germany’s hydrogen strategy, a cornerstone in its current foreign policy. Drawing onto critical geopolitics, this paper critically examines Germany’s hydrogen discourse since the onset of the war, and its repercussions for Europe’s and the global energy transition. The critical discourse analysis of official speeches and statements by the government between February 2022 (i.e. shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) and March 2023 reveals how the German government constructs and rationalizes its identity, interests and spatial beliefs about the international system vis-á-vis Russia in its geopolitical discourse on hydrogen. Contextualizing and discussing the assumptions driving Germany’s hydrogen discourse in the context of EU and international energy governance sheds light on how the government’s narrative (re)produces the geopolitics of hydrogen, and promotes a competitive policy framework that might risk undermining more cooperative and equitable efforts in the global energy transition.Show less

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From Energiewende to Zeitenwende? Germany's Geopolitical Discourse on Hydrogen