Like elsewhere on the continent, Tunisia's rush of proposed green hydrogen projects prioritise Europe's needs over its own.
Following the recent signing of a flurry of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs), discussions around green hydrogen in Tunisia have dominated the media.
On 28 May, the government signed an MoU for a large green hydrogen project named H2 Notos. It involves France's oil and gas major TotalEnergies, French renewable energy company Eren Groupe, and Austria's leading electricity company Verbund. The project hopes to produce 200,000 tons of green hydrogen annually during its initial phase, with the potential to scale up to one million tons per year. It intends to export this fuel to Central Europe via the "SoutH2 Corridor", a set of dedicated hydrogen pipelines expected to by operational by 2030 that will link North Africa, Italy, Austria and Germany.
A few days later, the Tunisia government signed another MoU, this one with the Saudi company ACWA. This agreement plans to produce 600,000 tons of green hydrogen annually in three phases, also for export to Europe. Then, on 29 July, the Industry, Mines, and Energy Minister Fatma Thabet Chiboub signed a further six new MoUs with various foreign corporations from the UK, France, Belgium, and Germany.
It's as if the country is being swept up by hydrogen fever. Tunisia aims to position itself as a hub for green hydrogen production, with ambitions to export six million tons annually by 2050, as outlined in the Tunisian Hydrogen Strategy.
Despite its renewable energy potential, Tunisia currently faces a significant energy deficit that stood at approximately 50% in 2022. Secretary of State for Energy Transition Wael Chouchane has emphasised the potential of green hydrogen to address this deficit and generate substantial employment opportunities at the same time. However, rather than prioritising domestic investments to close this national gap, the government plans to use new electricity capacity to produce green hydrogen for export. This approach, central to Tunisia's energy transition strategy, mirrors similar initiatives in other African nations such as Namibia, South Africa, Egypt, and Morocco.
Critics argue that the European Union's (EU) push towards a green hydrogen economy, touted as mutually beneficial for both Europe and exporting countries from the Global South, neglects several critical issues. These include potential negative impacts on local water resources and energy access as well as concerns over land grabbing and displacement. Moreover, the economic gains for Southern countries may be limited as they continue to import high-added-value technologies while exporting raw materials with lower-added value, reinforcing unequal trade relationships.
Despite EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen's assertion in her speech, on 16 June 2022, that "the idea of spheres of influence are ghosts of the last century", it appears that Africans are still operating within Europe's sphere. It is clear that the EU, especially Germany, is pushing for a green hydrogen economy where they dominate the value chains and technologies while externalising the socio-environmental costs to the peripheries. Tunisia's green hydrogen pipedream was introduced by Germany following the signing of a MoU in December 2020. In the four years since, the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) has funded and shaped Tunisia's hydrogen strategy, leading to the run of MoUs in mid-2024.
This can be seen as a new form of energy imperialism, where European countries, or more broadly the imperial cores, aim to use Africa as a battery for their needs. There is nothing new here. These arrangements strongly echo the colonial past. EU countries continue to have an essential need to extract resources and wealth from their peripheries, especially from Africa. The raw materials these regions possess, combined with an undervalued and disciplined labour force, continue to sustain the so-called developed world while causing a massive flow of wealth and resources from Africa to Europe. This pattern of exploitation and economic constraint strongly resonates with the arguments made by Walter Rodney in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. In this book, Rodney explains how European colonialism systematically extracted wealth from Africa and imposed structures that hindered the continent's capacity for self-sustained development. The ongoing extraction of resources under the guise of projects like the green hydrogen initiative in Tunisia today risks perpetuating this cycle of dependency and exploitation, undermining local energy sovereignty and development.
According to the Tunisian national hydrogen strategy, supported by GIZ, the plan is to use 248 million cubic meters of desalinated water by 2050, which equals the consumption of five million Tunisian citizens. That is nearly half the population in a country considered one of the most water-scarce in the world. The planned green hydrogen production is also land-intensive, requiring 500,000 hectares (twice the area of Greater Tunis). This land, referred to as the "hydrogen valley", is located in the southern part of Tunisia, a region already suffering from severe water scarcity and facing some land conflicts.
The southern region is known for its communal land belonging to Tunisian tribes and locals who use it for pastoralism and small-scale farming. The hydrogen strategy fails to address how this land will be acquired, raising concerns about land grabbing. An article by the Working Group for Energy Democracy highlights the disconnect between the goals of profit-driven energy corporations and the needs of local communities. Besides, it seems absurd that a country that imports much of its food will use its land and water for hydrogen production to serve another country's energy needs.
These foreign-dicated neocolonial green hydrogen projects are not passively accepted by Tunisians. They are questioned and scrutinised. After the signing of the two MoUs signed in May, several social movements, including the Stop Pollution Movement and the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights, published statements that make clear they consider green hydrogen production and export to be another mechanism of plunder. There is even some popular resistance. On 24 April, coinciding with World Anti-Colonialism Day, a small protest took place in front of the GIZ Energy Cluster in Tunis. The protest was organised by a coalition of organisations, including the Stop Pollution Movement, trade unions, student unions, political parties, and pro-Palestine activists. The latter joined the protest to highlight that Germany not only is pursuing neocolonial projects in Tunisia but is actively supporting the genocide in Gaza as the largest European supplier of weapons to Israel.
One of the main demands of the protest focused on stopping the planned water- and land-intensive green hydrogen projects and denouncing Germany's control and influence over Tunisia's energy agenda. This explains why the demonstration targeted the GIZ Energy Cluster, rather than the nearby Ministry of Industry, Mines, and Energy. Protestors believe that GIZ is the main decision-maker when it comes to renewable energies and green hydrogen. Protestors called for Tunisian energy sovereignty that is people-centric and a just energy transition that serves the country's needs first.
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It is worth mentioning that the Tunisian parliament has been tasked with discussing a new draft law to encourage green hydrogen. Unfortunately, this draft law primarily offers foreign investors harmful tax incentives and advantages. This means there is a pressing need to engage with parliamentarians on this issue.
When there is resistance, there is hope. A just transition is possible for Tunisia and the entire African continent. Given the recent legislative developments, creating a movement opposed to the new green hydrogen colonialism is becoming urgent and necessary, not just at the country level but across the entire continent. Such a decolonial Pan-African movement is needed to defend our lands, water, food, and energy systems. We Africans must prioritise our needs and work toward achieving energy and food sovereignty. Our priority is to provide cheap green electricity to the 600 million people currently lacking access to it, rather than rushing to produce green hydrogen for Europe. It is crucial to follow and support these dynamics against green hydrogen and connect the struggle from South Africa to Namibia and up to North Africa.
A version of this article was originally published at Africa Is A Country.
Saber Ammar is an activist, researcher, and Arab region programme assistant at Transnational Institute (TNI).
