Hydrogen Exports and Energy Justice: the Case for Australia

Significant research, funding and advocacy by government and industry in favour of hydrogen technologies saw investment in Australia almost double between 2021 and 2022 to A$230–303 billion. However, in late 2023, Australia still had no hydrogen producing facilities, while renewable energy contributed 35.9% of electricity generation in 2022. Contrast this support for hydrogen with Bruce Pascoe’s book Dark Emu (2014) which presents material on Australia’s First Nations people, whose sustainable agriculture and aquaculture activities were evident before British colonisation. Pascoe’s book proffers a need for reflection on the use of natural resources. The need for respect raises the energy justice concept as the push for hydrogen gains traction. This chapter uses a targeted desktop review of the literature and the frame of energy justice theory, including its tenets of recognition, restorative, distributive and cosmopolitan justice, to query whether large-scale hydrogen production is a reasonable path for a just transition.