I was in Namibia, for a climate ministry thing. They were all hype to build a hydrogen train with the Germans.
I explained over dinner how that is an FDP project, the FDP is run by the lobby of the Automobilzulieferer, and the only reason why they want to build this stuff is because the only thing they are actually good at making are combustion engines. H2 is not actually useful for that. You could just electrify the train line instead of using a the electricity to make hydrogen and then burn it in a combustion engine in the train. Also, it's explosive and if there is a serious accident in a project of that scale, people will die.
Also mentioned that, hydrogen has its uses, most prominently in metallurgy.
Half a year later, I hear that Namibia is now championing a H2 for clean steel project. Instead of shipping iron-ore to Germany for processing into steel and internal combustion engines, then shipping back the engines and burning the clean hydrogen in those engines.
Not sure how big my contribution was to this happening, but the serious of events feels like my biggest success in my humble attempts at applied decolonial practice.
[#]decolonize #diplomacy
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