Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/331366 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
LEM Working Paper Series No. 2025/28
Publisher: 
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Pisa
Abstract: 
Hydrogen plays a central role in policies aimed at decarbonisation, energy autonomy, industrial competitiveness, and development. This study analyses hydrogen policies, revealing how their design may undermine just transition goals and instead reinforce existing spatial inequalities. Drawing on International Energy Agency (IEA) data on clean hydrogen projects, investment trends are examined. A spatial analysis combining project data with environmental conflicts, sourced from the Atlas of Environmental Justice, reveals a concentration of hydrogen projects in areas affected by ecological degradation and socio-environmental disparities, raising concerns about the socio-ecological distributive effects. Hydrogen development appears largely driven by market logics and seems unlikely to meet climate targets.
Subjects: 
energy transition
industrial policy
hydrogen policy
environmental justice
JEL: 
Q42
Q56
R11
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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